Creating The Perfect Workout Schedule, Playing AAU, Maximizing Your Workouts, and More!

Foreign podcast. Appreciate everybody for tuning in today. Gonna be a little bit different of an episode, but I'm sure you guys are gonna enjoy it. If you guys are on Apple podcast, go ahead and scroll down to the bottom of the page and leave a five star review for me. Really would appreciate it. Helps the show to grow, helps more people see the show and you just helps us all grow. Helps me bring you guys better content, more questions, all the stuff you guys already know. So if you take two seconds, go ahead and do that. Really would appreciate it if you're on YouTube like and subscribe as well. And you know, we'll kind of hop into it after that. So the one thing I want to say is that, you know, I asked you guys for some questions, you know, this or that when you've seen this be about probably about a week ago and just wanted to kind of get a feel for what you guys were looking to talk about. But I got a lot of questions, so I just figured, you know, I'd take, I take the time to do a little bit of a Q and A for one of these podcasts because I'm sure, like I said, and I always say, like, if you guys have a question for me, there's a good chance that somebody else probably has the same question or similar question. So, you know, I'm happy to answer those questions. I'm sure that, I'm sure that the dude, I'm sure that's going to help out multiple people. So I'm all for it, but kind of wanted to go through and talk about a few things just kind of along those routes and you know, see how many we get through today and we'll hop into it. But kind of want to hop into this first one because it's a really good question and it's something that I've talked about before. But you know, I think it's always good to kind of consider and to revisit for those of you might not have heard me answers before, but he said, hi, Ethan. I have. And who's this from? This is from. Don't know his name. I have basketball tryouts next Wednesday and I want to make the top team which plays on the Adidas Gauntlet circuit. And I made this team, I made the team below it this spring that is D1, but still plays regionally. I really want the exposure, which would be good when I go into high school next year. I know I'm good at hustling transition layups and open threes, but I want to be an offensive threat. So I'm going to level up my game and be on the top team. Do you know what coaches will be looking for and how I can make the top team? I'm a guard, and I'm trying to get a bigger role on the team. I've been training for the past three, three or four months, every day, two or three times. And I want to find out what my game is and show it in front of the coaches. So a couple things to talk about. Let's talk about that last part. You want to find out what your game is so that already off the bat, like, if you're going into a tryout, okay, where you're trying to make a team, and especially you're telling me you're trying to make a team that you haven't made before, that's not the time to find out what. What your game is. You got to know going in, like, what am I good at? What am I not good at? And it's like, what you know, it's really just at that point, get to that tryout. Do what you do well and avoid doing things you don't do well, okay? If you're a great shooter, shoot the ball. If you're not a great ball handler, don't double the ball. If you're a great passer, a great ball handler, be a point guard. If you're not good at those things, then don't do it right? If you're not a good shooter, don't try and launch a million threes, okay? So pick your strengths and stick to that. If you're a great defender, then pride yourself on going to. Going to stop the. The best player on the other team that you play. And during your scrimmages or whatever, during that tryout, okay? There are. Those are little things. So just kind of off the bat, know what your role is, know what you're good at and go do those things, okay? Because again, the. You don't have to be a superstar, right? Coaches don't need a bunch of superstars. They don't need 12 superstars on the team. They probably would like to have a couple. But if you can fill a role for them, then do that, right? You don't have to be a point guard. You might be a shooter. That's fine. You can be that shooter. Just be good at it, okay? So know what you are going into that tryout, okay? It shouldn't be. This is not the time to find out what you are. It's the time to. I've worked on this I know I'm good at this. I'm going to do that in tryouts. Okay. And if it just so happens that you're able to maybe expand that a little bit, cool. But don't go overboard in terms of trying to figure out what your limits are. That's not the time to do that. Okay. You want to do that before you in some sort of pickup or, you know, with somebody else where you're, you know, maybe playing one on one or two on two, just trying to figure out there what your skills are at or what you can do, or maybe if you try to increase your role at that point, that's fine. But you're at a trial, do what you do. Well. When it comes to trials in general, there's a lot of things that you can do that are going to separate you from guys. It really could just. It just, you know, it kind of goes to your ability to be coachable. And that's kind of the major part, because these days you have so many players, especially a lot of good players who have grown up and have always been more talented than everybody else. And a lot of times they've just kind of been handed everything. And so a lot of times they come in there and they kind of. They're pretty arrogant. They don't take coaching well because no one's ever really coached them because they've always been better than everybody. So they don't know how to handle it. And coaches don't like dealing with that sort of stuff. Now, sometimes you have to deal with it because you might have a player who's just that talented. You have to deal with it, but you'd rather not have to deal with that. Okay? So what you can do is don't be that guy, Right? Be coachable. And what I mean by that is you've got to be going 100% in every drill that you guys do. You're trying to win every single sprint. You're trying to play the best defense you can. You're trying to get every rebound that you can. All those little things, you're going 100%. You know, you want to be the guy who's making eye contact with the coach while he's talking. You're nodding in agreement. Okay? If he makes a point, right? You're nodding in agreement. Let's talk about this. You need to make sure that you're listening to what they're saying. Don't be the guy who's getting into tryouts and has to be reminded how to do a drill again. Now, if you have a question, raise your hand, ask a question. That's fine. But I'm saying don't be the guy who's getting into drills and not knowing what he's doing, okay? Don't be that guy, okay? Be the guy who is there and knows what's going on, okay? Listening, that's a massive part of it as well. So listening, being coachable, those two things are going to go run wonders for you. And then on top of that, giving effort, giving your max amount of effort in every single thing that you do, those are guys that coaches want to have, okay? Also kind of going along with that, let's talk about doing the little things. Be willing to, you know, play defense, okay? I know this is au, so everyone wants to play offense. Be willing to play defense. Be willing to box out, be willing to dive for loose balls. Be willing to do those little things that, you know, aren't. Obviously we work on our offense. Be like, be willing to do those other things as well and at least give effort. I'm not saying you need to go there and be the best rebounder because you might not be that big, you might not be that athletic. That's fine. But the effort is what matters, okay? The attitude that you bring is what matters. So that's the. That's what I'd say to you in terms of that, you know, you can't control who's there, who's not there, and ultimately, you don't really control what the. What the coaches think of you, okay? They might say, you know what? You're a shooter, and we already have five guys who we think can shoot better than you. Well, you know, that is what it is at that point, okay? But all you control is going out there is giving your effort, having the best attitude you possibly can, and being a guy that the coach is going to say, you know what? This guy seems like he's coachable. This guy seems like he does things well. He's. He's going to be a guy that's going to listen to us. He's going to be a good guy to have on our team. He's going to give us effort. He's going to do those little things that we want. So this next question comes from Pascal, and he asked me, hey, coach, I can't play AAU because of various family situations, whatever. And, you know, he said, so how can I depend on only high school basketball to make it? I live in Ottawa, Canada, where only two players have made the NBA but aren't starters. I Watch your channel. I know it takes hard work, inconsistency and a vision to be able to make it. I'm also undersized guard. What advice can you give me? Thanks, coach. So, you know, I've talked about this a little bit, but to me you're going to want to break things down, obviously, especially where you're, where you play at in Ottawa, right? Really, if you're outside the United States and even in the United States, like if you don't play for, you know, if you don't play at a big, at a, you know, at a big time basketball school, or at least you don't play at a school that plays good competition with other guys who are going to go on to play at a high level. It's going to be hard for you to really get looks. Not impossible. Because I know plenty of guys who have, I know plenty of guys who've gone from small schools who. But those guys are incredibly talented. So that's, that's point number one. You got to become incredibly talented. That's really where it starts off, okay? Because at that point, if you can, if you are extremely talented and that shows on film, coaches will come to see you play. They'll say, okay, this guy looks like he can play, we'll go send someone to see him play, right? Or they'll have a camp that you might be able to go to, whatever. They will be interested in you if you have the ability to play at the next level, okay? So now it becomes kind of the process instead of the outcome. We want the outcome of, you know, whatever, whatever that might be, playing college, playing in the NBA, whatever that might be to you. Now we need to focus on what actually is it going to take to do that. So it becomes, I need to become the best player possible. So, you know, you said, you mentioned you're an undersized guard. What I always say is like, if you're an undersized guard, there are certain things you need to have that are just not negotiable. Like you, There are certain things that you have to have, okay? You have to be able to shoot the basketball and you need to be a great shooter. Like, you can't, like there is not room for undersized guards who are not great shooters. Unless you are like a freakish athlete. Like, unless you're one of the best athletes, like, you know, in any gym you step into where you might, you might be, you know, 45 inch vertical, quickest guy ever, you might be able to get away with that. But for the most part. If you're an undersized guard, you better be able to hit shots, you better be able to do that consistently. Because if you can't do that, that takes away like, like you're not going to be scoring inside. Especially if you guys are the college level and you're playing against guys who are way bigger and just as athletic as you are. Like you're not gonna be able to score inside on them very often. So you gotta be able to hit those outside shots. Alright, that's point number one. Number two is ball handling has to be like that. That's, that's a non negotiable as well. Like that's gotta be incredible. Okay? Because if you're an undersized guard, you're probably playing point guard. At the college level you're probably gonna play point guard, meaning you better be able to handle the ball against good defenders. Okay? So those two things, that's where it starts off doing those things right there. The other things too, they have to be intangibles. Your undersized guard, are you a leader on the court? Are you vocal with your guys? Do you have a high basketball iq? Those certain things. Have you played a lot of basketball in your life? If a coach goes to watch you play, can you say, yeah, this guy's played a lot of basketball. He's spent a lot of time in the gym. Like he knows basketball, he knows what he's doing out there on the floor. Those are three things that with, with undersized guards, I think you have to have, I think you have to have those three things right there. So continue to develop those aspects of your game. That's where I think that starts. So again, getting, making sure that you're talented enough. Now obviously, you know, we talk about aau. I think AAU is something that is pretty, like it's pretty necessary. But again, I know guys who have been able to, to kind of go, you know, I know a few guys, most guys I know who are playing in college right now played AAU. In fact, I'd probably say, I probably say 95% of the guys I know who are in college right now played AAU in high school. So that's something to consider. But again that becomes just another hurdle you're going to have to overcome right there. Because now undersized guard hasn't played probably a very high level of competition. That's something to consider as well. You know, the majority of guys I know, again, even if they were undersized, they might not come from the best school, they played AU basketball and they proved that they can compete with guys who were going to be at the college level. That's really what it comes down to. So again, you got to work with what you do. At the end of the day, if you can't play, you can't play. So you got to find a workaround. You got to be great at everything else there. There can't be any other weaknesses in your games. You got to make sure that you overcome those, those things right there. So that's something that I would say to you again. You know, you look like you're not that old. So I would say like if you can get a chance at some point to play AU, you know, if you don't play AAU when you're 15, like, you're okay, alright. But when you're a little older, I think it's very, very important that you do those things. I think, I think that stuff is, is increasingly more and more important. And especially you know, obviously with the whole, with the COVID and everything like that, AU has been weird. It's depending on really the state as well. You know, in Pennsylvania, AAU has been back, but obviously it's very different now because in terms of people, you can have in there all those different things. Certain states can't send teams, certain tournaments, and at this point Division 1 and Division 2 teams can't even go to tournaments. Like they can't even go watch like D3 schools can right now. But these D1s and D2s can't even be at tournaments. I mean, to recruit in person right now. So recruiting for sure is changing. But you know, I think AAU will be back to where, you know, it always has been because again, it's just the easiest way for coaches to see a lot of guys at once. So, you know, especially again, if you're coming from a place where basketball is not a big thing, you're going to want to find a way to get out and prove that you can compete with those other guys. So. Okay, another question I got here. Besides form shooting, are there any other drills that you know to improve shooting at home? So when it comes to drills that improve your shooting without a basket, I like to do drills that work, that emphasize arc. So when I do drills that, you know, actually I have a workout on my YouTube channel that actually has some stuff like this. So if you go, if you just type in the ultimate home workout, ultimate at home basketball workout, vision basketball, you'll find it. I'll put a link to it up in this video. And you'll see that that workout. And there's, I think there's four or five shooting drills within that, but all of them emphasize the ability to shoot the ball up in the air. And that way we're able to get the elbow above the eye again. I talk about how when, you know, if I'm coaching somebody and we're trying to fix their shot, right, and they have a lot of flat misses, a lot of times if you give the cue, elbow above the eye. So, you know, you shoot a basketball and you get your elbow above your eye, right? You want to make sure that the line of your eye is below your elbows, your elbows up higher than that. That way you're going to make sure you get enough arc on your shot. So I like to do drills where we're shooting the ball straight up in the air. Okay. So we might go into like one draw legs called line shooting. Where I'm going to pick a line could be just a crack on the sidewalk or, you know, a line of chalk, whatever it might be. And I'm going to put stand with my shooting foot on that line. So my right foot on that line, I'm going to shoot the ball straight up in the air, and I want it to land on that line. So now I'm shooting it straight, and I want to make sure I get great arc on that shot as well. So that's a great way to be able to work on your accuracy and your arc as well. I like to go into. You can do different moves into like a shot straight up in the air. So you can work on whatever you want. You can work to a float between the legs. You go inverted drag into a step back into a shot up in the air. You can work on a lot of game, like, moves. You just won't have the shot, you know, kind of available to you. So, you know, that's something to consider that you can still kind of work on a lot of different things, but you just obviously don't have the shooting aspect of it completely. That's what I'd say. Go check out that video if you want to see that stuff kind of in action. But. So this is a question. I got a ton. How to create your own workout, like, your own workout and like, more specifically, like your own workout schedule, right? So like, how, like, I get questions like, every single day, like, or players will send me, like, their workout schedule and say, coach, is this good? Like, can I do this? Can I do that? So off the bat, the first thing is, like, there's no. There's no perfect workout schedule. There's not. It doesn't exist. Like, there is. Everybody's a little bit different. Not everyone has the same schedule. So I can't just give you one schedule and say, you need to follow this. This is the perfect one, because you might have things you have to do. So you have to consider that it's not just about, you know, oh, what's the perfect schedule? Well, my schedule is probably different than your schedule. Your schedule is probably different than your friend's schedule, and my friend's schedule is probably different than your friend's schedule. So everyone's on a different schedule. So we have to be able to differentiate and find what works best for us. Okay. For me, personally, you know, I, you know, you know, back when I was playing, I used to like to, like, in the summer, like offseason, I love to get up and I'd love to go lift early in the morning just because the gym would be less. Less full. So I can get to a squat rack and get to a bench. Whatever I need to get for that day, I can get it out of the way. And then usually later in the day, I go to the gym, get shots up, whatever. And that, like, that was my schedule for me. Okay. But obviously, and then obviously, I usually have some sort of team workout, open gym later on the evening, so I can get all my work in and get my lifting in in the morning, can get my. My own basketball stuff in the afternoon. And then evening, we'll have some sort of open gym, pickup, you know, team workout, whatever it might be. So we have all those things going for us. You have to. You have to adjust that to your own schedule. If your team practices or has open gyms early morning, then maybe you have to lift in the afternoon or evening and you do your own workout later at night. Okay. That all depends on what your schedule is, what your goals are. Depends on the program you're following. If you're following a lifting program that only has you lifting three days a week, well, then maybe your workouts, your days are gonna look different depending on what you do. But if you're on a program that's four days a week, then obviously you have to keep that into consideration as well. And so there isn't anything that's perfect. You just need to figure out what works best for you. So what I'd say is get a piece of paper out or notes, app, whatever it is, and plan out your day. So say, you know, what what workouts do I need to get done? What basketball related activities do I have? Do I have a team practice? Do I have a open gym? Do I have a, do I want to go get my own individual workout done? Do I need to go yet? Do I need to go. I'm going to pick up tomorrow. Am I going to lift whatever those things are, Write that down and then figure out what time you're going to go do those things. It's really as simple as that. Okay, but then when it comes to how many days a week should I do this? Like should I do shooting this many days a week or that many days a week? That's again, that's something, that's, that's that's to each their own. Like I would say. I mean if you're gonna, if you're, if you're gonna go to the gym six days a week to get your shots up, right, or to do your some sort of workout, you have to figure out what do you need to do, like what do you need to work on. Okay. And, and there are some things that I would say like for, especially for guards that like you can kind of do every day. So your different game situations essentially. Like the stuff I put into the perimeter score system, that's like stuff that you can kind of do every, like you can do that every day and you're going to hit different, different things but it's still all guard skills. Right? So Monday we get in the gym, we're going to work on, you know, the inverted drag and do like some sort of series with that. Okay. We're going to get into some, some more pull ups of the dribble that day as well. And then we're going to finish off with you know, some sort of stationary or some sort of like you know, self taught shooting drill. Right. So we're getting shots up, we're working on our game like moves, all that sort of stuff that might be one day, maybe the next day. Working on the turn dribble, we have a turn dribble series. We're doing some ball handling stuff, some more shooting. Like it's going to depend on the day. Okay. So I have plenty of workouts on my channel you can check out and obviously the perimeter score system, elite ball handling, all workouts, you guys that are going to help you guys out. So check that stuff out. There's your resources for you. Once you have that stuff, you just need to figure out what time do you want to go do it. There's no right time to Be able to have to do things that you just need to plan it out for yourself and get it done. End of the day, once you get your stuff done, that's cool. Now, is there science behind this? Time is the best time to do this. I've seen videos actually shout out to by Amy's Basketball. I think Coleman made a video on the best time to work out. And it was real science based on when you wake up during the day, when your body's at its optimal time to exercise or to give max effort, essentially. And it was insightful. But at the same time, and I think he even made this point in the video, it's like, don't let that be a huge deal to you. Like, if you have to work out in the morning because that's when it fits in your schedule, then that's fine. If you have to work on the evening, that's fine. Like you just need to go get it done at the end of the day. And really that's what it comes down to. So when it comes to figuring out what type of things to work on, that again is something that needs to be individualized to you. Okay. Again, there are things you can go to. Like if I'm gonna give you something, I'm gonna say, listen, make sure you're hitting your ball handling, make sure you're hitting your, your shooting, of course. And then make sure that you're getting in those different game situation drills. So you're playing working on your scoring moves in the wing, right? Working on your scoring moves in the baseline on the top, working out of the float, dribble out of the inverted drag out of the punch, dribble, all those different things that you're gonna go to during games that you can go to that can help you to get open, to create space. Those things you can work on every day. And if you do those things every day, you're going to become a really good player. Okay. Assuming you're going at game speed, which the other thing that I'll say is, players will send me workout schedules where they're working out. They're getting up at 6am, working out from 6 to 7, getting back home, eating breakfast, working out from, you know, 8:30 to 10, then they're getting back home, then they're going to do some stationary bike riding for an hour, then they're going to get off, then they're going to eat lunch, then they're going to go lift for two hours, then to come back, then they're going to go to the gym For a three hour shooting workout. Like to me, if you're doing that, you probably aren't going game speed the whole time. You're probably wasting a lot of time. Like you're probably just going through it. And I get it that it feels good to say, oh, you know, I was in the gym for eight hours today, but I talk about this all the time, guys. Like it's not about the time you spend in the gym, it's about what you actually are doing. If you are spending eight hours in the gym, you're probably getting good, focused game. Like work in for probably, probably 45 minutes. Honestly, because you're spreading yourself so thin at that point, you need to pick what's important and focus on those things. I would say for most players there's no need to work out more than like three times a day, like maximum. And then when I say workout, I'm saying like you have, you have a team workout or a team practice in the evening, you have your lift and then you have your, your workout, right? That's three right there. That's, that's like, you know, again, you maybe use, maybe you think you can get four and maybe four works for you. Cool. I'm not going to tell you not to do that. But I'm saying for most players, probably the issue is that they're doing too much as opposed to doing too little. Okay. Make sure that the work that you're doing is very, very focused. Is game like, is game speed, game intensity. And stop trying to do a million things all at once. Okay. You're not going to get better at everything all in one day. It's just not going to happen. Right. Just to say I'm going to spend eight hours doing this, that's not the right way to go about doing something. Rome wasn't built in a day. You want to make sure that instead of trying to build Rome in one day, make sure that each building you build in Rome is a great building that's going to last for a long time. Instead of trying to do everything and build a bunch of crappy buildings that are going to fall down as soon as there's a storm. And what I'm saying by that is, don't go spend your time doing eight hour workouts when you're going to get to the gym or you're going to get to a game and you're going to have to go gain speed game intensity for an hour. And you're not used to doing that. Okay, so now all those drills you were doing at half speed because you were tired, because you've been working on for four and a half hours already. That stuff's not going to help you in a game. Like, you're not going to be able to be effective in a game. Okay. So figure out what works best for you. Keep it concise, trim the fat, do what needs to be done, plan it out for yourself, and that's really how you. How you come up with your. With your perfect workout schedule. Okay. Matt asked me how to stay focused in your workouts. So this is something that is also important, you know, But I think that's also the importance of kind of what I was just saying, making sure that you're not trying to do a million things all in one day. Right? It's hard to stay focused on something for eight hours in a day. Right. So even if that's working out, even if you love basketball, it's hard to do that. So make sure you know when you're, when you are working out, that's where your focus is at. And I think something that can help you is. Is obvious. I think music is one of the main things for me. Like, if I'm, if I'm in the gym, I'm trying to work, I think music is great to kind of keep me going and get the energy up. All that sort of stuff I think is great for it. So I think that's something to add in if you're not already. I'm sure most of you probably are if that's not. But. But also kind of going along with that. Sometimes it can be nice to switch up what music you're listening to. So maybe there's a day where you're, you know, your playlist is just. You're just not feeling it that day, so you go listen to something else, right? That, that itself can help kind of change the energy up in your workout and you're able to get things done, be more focused, be more intense the whole entire time. You also want to make sure with your workouts that you have your plan going in. Okay, so you say, I'm going to go to the gym today. I'm going to do this, this, this, and this. Okay. That's what you have down. You're going to go do that now. You're able to stick with that thing that you, that you told yourself you're going to do. And it's easier to stay focused when you know, like, hey, I have this next and I have this now I've got to do this. Okay, that's where it becomes a lot easier for you is making sure you have yourself planned out every single day. Again, you're not overdoing and trying to work out the entire day. You have your focus times, you're getting your work done. Okay. And then music is a big part for me as well. So hopefully that helps you out with that. I think that's a good question because I get that a lot as well. But really it comes down to those things. And of course, you know, at the end of the day, you have to make that, that, that decision to, to be focused. Okay, I have another. I got another question. Okay, I got another question that was similar to that is how can you make sure you're giving 100% effort? And this, this is a kind of a interesting question because it's not like we talk about giving effort, right? That's something where there's, there's, you know, when you're giving yourself 100% effort, like, you can feel it, right? And now it becomes channeling that effort into positive, like positive motion because you can go out and you can, you can go, you can give 100% effort doing pound dribbles for an hour and a half straight. Okay, but is that the best use of your effort? Probably not. Okay, so it's less about, you know, you want to give 100% effort, but you want to make sure that it's, it's, it's moving like it's focused in the right direction, so kind of adding in that focus part of it too. So what kind of like, are your workouts focused in a way that's going to actually help you in games? Right. Do you have. Are you following program. Are you following workouts or programs that are actually going to help you? Okay. I think that stuff is where it becomes important because once you know that those are the kind of things you're going to be getting. Whether it's been results that people have had, whether it's written by somebody who is experienced and knows what they're doing, that's all of a sudden where you know that your effort, your intensity and your focus is really going to pay off and lead into something. Which is another question that I got, which is how to know if you know, you're. How to be able to tell if your effort is basically, if what you're doing is working. Like, how do I know my training is working? Okay. And this is kind of a twofold answer. Essentially, it becomes. You want to make sure, first of all, that for the most part you're going to see results, like, early on, like, if you, if you do, like, I'm confident if you guys are in elite ball handling, you guys felt better about your ball handling after workout 1. You guys are like, yeah, like this, this is good. Like, I'm. I'm very, very confident that, that you guys felt that. Okay, that's something that continues on. But you're going to hit a part where it's going to start to feel like you've hit like a plateau, right? Like you've seen those results, and there's going to be days where you feel like you get worse or you feel like you don't get any better at all. Okay? At that point, it really becomes about being tough and sticking it out. If you've seen results of what you're doing before, then you know that it works. So stick with it. Even if it seems like it's not going to be working that day or you just, you're getting tired of it, whatever, you want to stick with that because you know what it's going to give you. Especially if you know all the people who've gone through it. You've gotten it from somebody who knows what they're talking about. Stick with what's happening. Stick with the training that you're doing, because it's going to pay off for you. If you've seen the results. Now, if you're doing training and you never see any results, you don't get any better, it never helps you at all, then it probably isn't good training. It's probably not very good, right? At the end of the day, it's all about results. Okay? So if there's no results there, then switch up what you're doing, question what you're doing at that point. But if you've seen results of what you're doing, you've seen improvement, and at the end of the day, if you're going 100%, that's the caveat to all this. It does not matter who is training you. You can be getting trained by the best MBA trainer of all time. If you aren't going a hundred percent, you aren't giving your full effort, you aren't being consistent or focused with it, then it won't matter. For you, it won't matter. It won't matter who's training or what drills you do. It's all about the effort that you give for each and every workout. It's all about giving that game, like, effort every single time. And then you'll start to see those results, okay? And then Once you do start to see those results, stick with it. Be mentally tough. Be tough enough to stick through those workouts where it's tough and it feels like you're missing every shot and it feels like you can't handle the basketball that day. Those are going to happen. Those happen to everybody. And you have to be able to overcome that. That's where that skill, overcoming adversity, that's where that is developed. It's right there. Okay, so another question. Where'd it go? I saw a good one. Oh, okay, Here we go. So Luciano asked me this question. He said, you know, fit with a team and fit with the coach, which is more important, because I'm looking to change teams. So essentially talking about, you know, is it more important to have a good fit with the coach of your new team, or is it more important to have a new. Or to have a good fit with. With the new players on your team? And I would say it's. I would. I would probably say. I mean, I would say both. I don't think there's one that's not important. They're both very, very important. Personally, I would say coach is probably more important, especially at the high school level, because at the end of the day, if you are a great shooter, but your coach doesn't like to shoot threes as a team, and for whatever reason, maybe he's just not a very good coach who doesn't understand the importance of shooting threes. He says, you know what? I want all my baskets to be layups. Only two layups on this team. Well, you're probably not gonna be very successful in that team. So that's where I think the coach part comes in. Because at the end of the day, your coach has to put you on the floor, right? If he doesn't want to play you, you're not gonna play. Okay? So no matter how good you are, it's whatever. If you have teammates who you don't fit well with, you still might be able to play. At the end of the day, you might not be. You might not win a lot of games, right? You guys might not be. You guys might not like each other, but you can still play. And then at that point, that becomes a lot about your coaches. Are your coaches able to help you guys kind of mesh together? Okay, So I would say coach is the most important part of that. You want to play for a coach who. Who, you know, knows what they're talking about for hopefully, like, you know, you have a coach who knows what they're talking about. And ideally, they play a system that you fit well in. Okay? Those are kind of the two things. And I know a lot of. A lot of guys don't really have the option of picking where they play, right? They don't really have the option of, you know, that's the public school near me is this high school. So that's where I'm going. Right? That's where. That's what happens to most people. But I would say that coaching is probably the most important part of that, just because, you know, again, that's how you're going to get on the floor and you can be a great shooter. And even if you don't fit well with your teammates, you still might be able to get your shots and do all the things you do. But if you have a coach who doesn't let you do those things, then you won't do them. So it's kind of as simple as that. Alex asked me how to get in your opponent's head. So this is an interesting question because I think there's kind of an, like. I think there's kind of a multifaceted response to it. I say off the bat, first of all, this isn't something that, like, this isn't something that I would necessarily focus on doing. There are some players who naturally just talk. Like, they like to talk trash on the court. They. They naturally do it. And to be honest with you, that's fine. From a coaching perspective, if that's what you do, if that's how you get in the zone to play, whatever, that's cool. The issue becomes when that detracts from the team. So if you talk so much and the ref tells you to stop and then you keep doing it and you get a technical, now you're hurting the team, and now it's a problem. Okay? If you talk a lot and that guy starts to beat you, and now you're kind of spiraling out of control because your talk isn't working now and you can't get yourself together, that's a problem. Okay, if your best skill is talking, then that's a problem. Right? If you're the guy who's not very good, but he's great at talking trash, that's not what we want to have either. So talking trash, there's nothing wrong with that at all. As long as it's done in a way that is positive, it's constructive for you and your team. Because. Because if it's something that's going to be negatively affecting you or your team, then that's going against winning and then they. Winning is what matters. Okay. So if that helps you to win games, cool. What I'll say in terms of strategies for doing that? You know, I was never a trash talker really. The only time I would ever really talk is when someone else talked to me first. And then maybe I would say something depending on how, on what the game was. But I also, when players talk about, I usually would ignore it. Like, it usually was just like, you know, whatever. I'm more focused on what I'm doing. Like, I don't. But for some players, again, that's their, their thing. They like to, they like to engage in that. That's cool. But for me personally, this was my thing. So that's not. You don't try and be that, don't try and be a guy who's like, oh, you know, I gotta talk because I gotta get my pun's head. That, that shouldn't be your, your point. Your you talking should be to get you going, right? If that's what gets you going to play at your best, then do it. But if it's to try and take them out of their game, you're focusing on the wrong thing. You should be focusing on what you do best. That, that's really, to me what matters. So that's a. But that, that's, that's something that you see a lot from players. Like, oh, you know, they're gonna come out and they're gonna talk a lot. But you know, how do they actually like does that, are they doing that for show or does it really help them? I find that a lot of players do that because they see Patrick Beverly talking. They see all these guys on TV who talk trash. They think it's cool, but they don't understand that those guys do that because that's how they are. Patrick Beverley is, that's, that's what he is. He's a, he's a talker, right? He's a, he's a, he's a pesky defender and that's the energy he brings to a team, right? And that's his role. That's, that's what he's supposed to do it. That's his job and he's very, very good at it. Okay, not every player is Patrick Beverly. There's a lot of Kawhi Leonard's out there, right? Who obviously they have the whole stuff about Kawhi talking where he's gonna, you know, say his typical, like he's gonna hit a shot and just yell bucket, right? That's what he does, right? Real subtle stuff. He's not Patrick Beverley. Okay? Not every player has to be Patrick Beverley. Not every player needs to be Kawhi Leonard. You can be somewhere in the middle right there. Okay? But that's kind of the whole thing there. Valens asked me a question. He said how to bounce back if you've had an injury training this summer. So this is a good question as well. And I actually want to relate this to not just injuries, but just getting back to playing in general. So for a lot of you guys, probably a lot of you are back to playing at this point. I know in my state, in states around here, you know, everyone's really back to playing for the most part, but there's certain states, obviously, where they probably are not yet able to do that. I would say the main thing is like, you want to make sure you ease your way back into all that. Like, you don't want to try and go 0 to 100 from, you know, being hurt to just trying to bounce back into, you know, three days, five days, a week, whatever. Like I would say ease your way back in, get comfortable again, build yourself back up and then you can start to hit the, hit the ground running a little bit. And I think that's important to, you know, avoid injuries and, and especially as we're getting back to playing games, you know, you saw it, you know, with, I think the NBA did a pretty good job, but there were certainly injuries this past. Even though it was only eight games, there were injuries that, that occurred and a lot of it was stuff that, you know is going to happen because guys are getting back into playing all again. You know, we're playing all of a sudden every other day, sometimes back to back games. You can't stimulate that sort of stuff. Okay. So it's about building yourself back up, getting yourself strong to a point where, you know, you're ready to go again. And I think that in general is going to be the, your, your main key to, to getting to that. How can you work on, how can we work on our game if you can't afford the programs out there, including yours? So what I would say is, first of all, my approach on it is like, listen, I understand not everyone can afford, you know, the, the programs out there. That's cool. You know, there's plenty of stuff out there. And even on my own channel, like my, like the bowling workout I put out two weeks ago or a week and a half ago, about that, that's, that's a workout that, like that's that's. That's going to help you. Like, there's plenty of stuff on YouTube you can look at that will help you out. But there's plenty of workouts you can find on my own channel. The NBA player workout, shooting workouts, finishing workouts off, like, different moves off of the float, dribble off of, you know, the. The contested shots workout. There are a lot of stuff that. There's a lot of stuff you can get that's going to help you out a ton. So don't feel like because you don't have this or that you can't get better, you still can. Now, the difference becomes if I'm, you know, if I have a program that I'm putting out, usually with something like that, I'm going to have more. It's going to be way more structured in terms of reps, sets, when you're doing this, when you're doing. That's going to be laid out for you. So it's a lot easier to kind of follow along and kind of see progressions. That's really where it changes. The only thing that I would say for you is that, like, you. You're going to have to do those progressions yourself. So, you know, where we might have, you know, a drill that, let's say we're going to do this drill and you have to make. You're going to shoot 10 shots. Workout one, you're going to shoot 10 shots for this drill. Maybe by workout five, now you're doing make 10 shots. That's an example of a progression you might make. So if you're doing a workout where you know you're supposed to make five threes on the left wing off of a float dribble, maybe as you start to get better at that, increase what you're doing. Now you're going to make 7 off that float dribble. Okay. So you can kind of add those progressions in yourself. But there's no excuse to still not get better because there's plenty of stuff out there, right? And even stuff that I put on here, like, I post workouts with the guys that I train on my channel where we're doing drills that I, you know, that I do with those guys, stuff that's going to help you get better, right? Stuff that I've done growing up when I didn't have a rebounder or any stuff like, that's something you can look at, you can use, and that's going to help you get better as well. So again, it's not all about, you know, this program, that program, it's about, you got to make sure, like, I'm going to take what I have, and I'm going to use that to the best of my abilities, right? And there's still a ton of stuff out there on my channel you can use. That's really going to help you guys out. So that's a question I get all the time is like, guys will be like, oh, you know, like, I know I can't. I can't afford this program, but, like, I still want to, like, do this and that, but I can't. Like, there's a way around it, right? Like, if you can't afford it, that's fine. Right? And maybe there's some sort of. There's something that you won't get. Like, maybe there's something that you might not be able to get except from that program, whatever, if that's the situation you're in. It's like when I talk about, you know, the whole AAU situation with. With the question from earlier. If you can't play AAU because you can't, like, you just. Your family can't do it. Cool. Like, there's. There's nothing you can do about that, right? So make the most of what you have, and a lot of times, you'll be able to get. You'll be able to still succeed in that situation that you're in, even if there's something that, you know, you feel like you should be able to do if maybe you had more. Okay. So that's something that I would say and kind of moving forward, I definitely want to do more Q and A stuff. I'm looking for. There was another question I was going to answer, but, you know, I got. I did get a lot of questions. Actually. There was a few questions on here that I'm going to move into. I'm going to talk about in another video. There's one question I got about how to be vocal, which is one of my favorite questions I've ever been asked, because no one ever asked about talking basketball court, communicating that. That's, like, one of my favorite things to talk about, because it's. It's just. I'll get into that at some point. I'm gonna have a. Probably a whole episode on that, though. So shout out to Jordan for asking that question. That's a great question right there. And the one other set. Okay, so. So actually, there's two questions here. I'll answer one more. And actually, no, no, no. I gotta answer. I gotta answer Two of these. Okay, so first question comes from Santi Blancas, and he asked me, how do you deal with haters? So this is an interesting question. There's. There's kind of a few ways to look at it. For me, personally, it's kind of going back to what I was talking about with. With, you know, getting in your opponent's head, right? If guys try to talk to me in the court, like. Like, to me, it's just like, a lot of times, you know, in one or out the other, because, like, who cares? Who cares what this dude's trying to tell me? Like, I have enough that I'm worried about now that, like, that's all I need to focus on. Like, I don't need to focus on what he's saying, what they're saying, any of that sort of stuff. That doesn't matter to me because then it has no effect on me. How. What affects me is how I play right here. What affects me is me running this offense correctly. What affects me is me making the right pass, is me, you know, breaking this press. Like, that's what matters. Like, it doesn't matter. What matters is making this free throw. Not about what he said or what I said back. None of that stuff matters. So that's kind of how I always view things. You know, there's always going to be. And no matter what you do, if you put yourself out there in anything, whether it be basketball, whether it be any sport that you do, any activity you do, you know, making videos, whatever it is you might be doing, you want to make music, you want to write a book, you want to, you know, be on tv, you want to be in, you know, whatever. Whatever it might be, there's going to be people out there who are going to have an opinion about it that maybe you don't, like, maybe you don't feel like is not correct, and a lot of times in people who don't really know you all that well, okay, so that's something to consider, really. For me, my. Again, my thought has always been like, I. I don't care. Like, there's. There's there until something really affects me personally, then maybe that's something that I'll address. But if it's something that's like, you know, I don't like you, or I think you're terrible or, you know, whatever, whatever is the. Like that. That isn't gonna have any effect on, you know, for me, like, anytime I start to think of, like, oh, man, like, you get self conscious about this or saying that or all that. Like, if somebody is gonna say something to you about something, someone's gonna hate on you for something. Like what? Like what, how. What changes for you? Like, what effect do they have on your life? And to me, the only, like, really, my, my thought nowadays is like, there's only two people that I. I really care about, their opinion. And the first person would be family, close friends. Like, if they have something to tell me, that's something I'll listen to, okay? People who I, who I trust and respect that. Those people who I'll listen to. The second group people, is people who affect my money in some way, okay? So whether it's a boss, whether it's somebody that, you know, I'm collaborating with or whatever, it might be somebody who affects my money. Those are the two people who I will listen to. Anybody else, maybe, if I think what you're saying is valid. But if it's not valid, then I don't care. It doesn't matter to me what their opinion is. And I think that's kind of the approach you should take is like, listen, this person is not someone who knows me very well or has a direct effect on what I'm doing. So my coach, My coach's opinion matters. What my coach tells me it matters because that's my coach, right? And he's going to play me or not play me. He's the one who's going to have a good. Who's going to, you know, tell a college coach a good thing about me or tell him a not good thing about me. That's. That's something to consider, okay? Other than that, like, who cares what, what, what some random person at your school says doesn't affect you at all, does not matter to you long term and especially when you're young. You know, it seems like I remember when I was back in, like, middle school, high school, and it seemed like everything was such a big deal, right? Everything was a big deal. This person said, this is a big deal. Literally, like once you graduate high school and you're out of that, like the, you're out of, like, kind of the, you know, middle school, high school days. Like, it literally, like, nothing, nothing from that time period matters at all. So that's sort of thing, like, what will matter is what you do with basketball, right? So if you're upset, people hate on you for basketball. Like they say, oh, you know, you're this or you're that. Well, if you're able to translate that into something after high school where you're still playing. You're playing at the college level or whatever. Like, now all of a sudden, like, you're in a whole new. A whole new place. And those people who are. Who are talking about that sort of stuff that, like, what are they doing? Like, they're literally no longer a part of your life. And now you're here doing this. So ultimately, you can't let what somebody says detract from what you're doing, because in. In five years, if you let what they said stop you from doing what you're doing, like, that's something you're going to regret because you're like, oh, man, I. Like, where could I be right now if I had just kept doing what I was doing and say, you know, whatever. I don't care what they're saying. That's what it has to be. So. So for me, it really needs to be some more of an attitude of like, who cares? Like, you don't. You don't matter. Like, you don't matter to my life. Like, I'll listen to what you have to say. Cool. You can have an opinion. That's fine. But I can choose whether or not I. I listen to what you're saying to me. And more often than not, if you don't know me, then I'm probably not going to take that into much consideration right there. So that's a good question. Again, Steven asked me last question. We'll get to recovery methods in off days. So a good point to make. I've always been a fan of at least taking one day off a week, especially if you're really, really working at a lot of things. Like, in my schedule, it's like, okay, so you're getting up to lift in the morning, then you got your own work on the afternoon. Then evening time, you're playing pickup or teamwork or whatever. Like, it'd be good to take a day off, maybe two days off, depending on how you feel. But I think that's really what it comes down to. Like, how do you feel? Right. If you feel terrible, maybe take a day off. Okay. Now, I'm not saying, like, oh, you know, I don't feel like working out today, so I'm not gonna do it. Like, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying plan them out. Okay. Or if it's a really bad. Like, I really gotta. Like, I really don't think I can go to the gym today. Cool. That's fine. Maybe make that up on another day that was supposed to be off. Maybe you make it up on that day, whatever. You gotta listen to your body. And again, it comes back to, like I said, there's no perfect schedule. Like, I can't tell you, you need to take Sunday off every week, you need to take Saturday off every week. I can't tell you that because I don't know your schedule. But also, I don't know how you feel. You might feel fine to only rest one day a week. Or maybe you feel like, you know, I'm gonna take off Wednesday and Sunday because I go so hard on the other days of the week that, like, I just, I feel better. I can perform my highest when I take those two days off. That's fine, that's cool. That's the smart way to approach things. Okay, so that's something I'd say. When it comes to recovery, obviously sleep is the biggest one. You want to make sure you're getting your eight, nine, ten hours a night, depending on, again, how much you're working out. Sleep is really what it comes down to. There's other meds you can go to, obviously, there's the common icing, icing your knees or ice baths and all this stuff. And I hear kind of conflicting sides to how effective that is in terms of your recovery. And I'll have to have somebody on at some point to talk about that because that's obviously the thing growing up, like, oh, I gotta take an ice bath, right? I gotta ice my knees. But there's increasingly more and more evidence that you actually don't want to do that directly after you work out. So I won't speak on that right now because I'm just not knowledgeable enough on that specifically. But those are kind of the things to be able to say. So drinking water, eating enough food, I think is massive, especially when you're lifting or you're trying to get stronger and you're still growing. Make sure you're getting enough food and drinking enough water, getting those nutrients you need to be able to play at your highest level and then sleep, really, those three things are the things you need to have. There are other parts that are important. Stretching, foam rolling, I think are massive parts to recovery and also warming up as well. But those three things are the critical part of it. And then being willing to take a day off once a week or whatever, at the end of the day, if that one day off allows you to go harder on those six days, then that's going to make you better. So it's about training smart, not just training hard, feeling like, oh, no days off? No, but I never take a day off. That's not exactly how things work. There are times where you're going to take days off. And guess what? A day off. I always say this. A day off might not be that you do nothing. The whole day might not be A day off for you might mean, okay, I'm still going to go and get, you know, 100 form shots up, or I'm going to go shoot 50 free throws, or I'm going to go get 50 spot shots up, or I'm going to go do some light stationary ball handling stuff. Or I'm going to go do a pool workout or I'm going to go, you know, for, I'm going to go, I'm just stretching and foam rolling today. Like, you might still do something, but it might not be your full, like 100% heavy workout days. Okay, so that's something to consider as well. But there's some more stuff in here. Again, there's, there's a lot of questions that I got that I'm going to talk about in future videos and future podcast episodes. So I appreciate you guys who all ask questions, continue to do that. Make sure you guys have questions for me. Send me a DM Vision Driven Basketball. Again, I really appreciate all you guys who asked me stuff because again, like all my, a lot of my video ideas come from the stuff that you guys asked me. So questions, go ahead and send them to me. And even if you don't have a question for me, make sure you follow me on Instagram @visiondrivenbasketball. So you see what I'm posting, any sort of updates, all those things. I really appreciate all you guys who are listening and I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace. Sa.