Ethan Khoza breaks down what it takes to make varsity basketball. You need to shoot well enough to force defenses to adjust, match the physicality of older players through strength training, and understand your team's system. Vision without action is a daydream.
We were talking about how to make the varsity team and we had a bunch of kids like, yeah, you know, I want to be a freshman sophomore next year. Like, I want to make the varsity team. And I was talking about, like, what exactly does that take? You know, there's a couple kids who like, I want to start varsity. It's like, coach, what I need to do to start. Like, first of all, you can't ask me what you have to do to start because I haven't seen you play, I haven't seen the kids ahead of you play. I don't know your system. That's something that you have to be able to answer for yourself. But the thing that I will say is for you guys who are guards, which is probably the majority of you, number one, and this is. Guys, this is something that I say, like, I feel like I did like a broken record saying this, but you have to be a great shooter. Like shooting the basketball is the most important skill in basketball because once you're able to do that, that opens up the floor for everything else. So if you can shoot the defenses that play you differently, all of a sudden they have to realize, okay, that guy's on the floor, so we know he can shoot. We have to be closer to him and help opens up driving lanes. They had to close out on you harder. You can get by them because they get. They're out of control. Closing out on you so you can pump fate get by them a lot easier. It all starts with you being able to shoot the basketball. You want to play at the varsity level and you're a guard, you got to shoot, you got to be able to shoot. Number two is you have to be able to to match the physicality of that. And it's tough for younger guys because when you're 14, 15 years old, you're playing guys who are 17, 18 years old, they have some, they have some years on you. So we got to talk about the weight room. Like, how committed are you in the weight room? And obviously right now there's not really any weight rooms open. But doing your at home strength stuff, how committed are you to that? Because that's a huge part of it. If you're not doing that, don't tell me that you want to play varsity as a freshman or sophomore. You're not getting stronger because to me, it's like, again, you can tell me what you want, but if I don't see it actually in action, I don't see you actually working towards it and being realistic, then you don't actually want it. It's a dream, right? It's a daydream. There was a quote I just heard actually about vision. It was really, really good. It was. Man, I'm trying to remember. It was like vision. Oh, man. It was vision without action is a daydream or no, no act. Yeah. Action without vision. Oh, man. What was it? It was vision without action is a vision with action is a daydream. Yeah. Vision without action is a daydream. But action without vision is a nightmare. Right? So if you're just. You're. If you don't. That kind of goes back to our first episode. But essentially, all I'm saying is that if you are. If you have a vision, you want something, but you don't actually do the necessary actions to get it. It's a daydream. It's not. It's not like it's not real, and it never will be real if you can't actually commit to it. So that's why I'm saying, number two, physicality, guys. If you can't match the physicality, how's the coach gonna play you? Right? How are you gonna be able to handle the basketball? How are you gonna be able to. To, you know, stay healthy if you get pushed around? So recognize that. The third thing I'll say is that you need to know just how to play like you. And what I mean by that is the. You got to be able to play in a system. You got to be able to do all the necessary things that. That coaches want in good team basketball. You got to know when to make the extra pass. You got to know when to attack the basket, when to score, how to score. Like, what are the best situations you can put yourself into? Score. What are your strengths? Like, know them. You can't be a guy who a coach has to teach you, you know, okay, well, after you make this pass, you have to cut because you can't stand still because then the. The defense doesn't have to move. So that's something that you have to. You have to recognize. And if you aren't able to do that, you're going to have to go through the whole process of learning it. So a lot of you guys can play and you know how to play. You guys have maybe been around good basketball, you know, as young guys, but the. The main two things, shooting, physicality, you got to be able to handle both of those things as a guard and as a big. Really. It's the same exact. It really is the same thing as a big that maybe you do less ball handling, but it's. It's no different. Be able to shoot, be able to handle physicality. That's how you're going to get to where you want to get to.
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