How To Learn Plays and Defenses (The Power of Visualization)

Foreign Bastard Training Podcast. Thank you guys for listening or watching you guys from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, any other platform you guys might use. Thank you guys for listening. And then YouTube, you guys make sure you guys drop a. Like, subscribe. Appreciate you guys and my Instagram down below at Vision Driven Basketball. You guys have questions, all that stuff for me, go ahead and send them over to me. One thing, just to preface everything, I get a lot of questions, guys. I get a lot of DMS every day and I get even more YouTube comments. So I go, I see a lot of stuff. The one thing I'll say, I want you guys questions, right? I want you guys to send me questions. But that being said first, before you send me that question, just go to YouTube, type in vision Driven Basketball, and then whatever topic you're asking about, because there's a good chance that I've talked about it before, okay? So go ahead and look through that. If you still have a more specific question or something that I haven't covered, then still, like, reach out to me with it. But if there's something like, you know, if you're gonna ask me, like, what do I do? Like, I play really well in practice, but I don't play well in games. I've made probably four videos on that, at least one podcast, maybe two, and then other videos on top of that as well, or how can I get better at reading Defenders? I've talked about that so many times throughout different videos. So that's very simple to find if you just go ahead and search that. So wanted to preface that because again, love the questions, but if it's a question that I've answered a bunch of times and already have a video on it, I'm probably not gonna make another video on it, unless it was a long time ago, then I may make another one, but chances are I'm not gonna make another video on it. So it's just gonna be easier for you. Instead of having to wait for me to respond to you, you can just go figure it out right away, right? That's something that, like, for me personally, the. The, you know, the YouTubers I watch and I learn from, you know, for example, I think of the one guy who I watch a lot of his business stuff, and anytime I have a question about something, I'll just go to YouTube, type in his username, and then that topic, and a lot of times I'll find stuff for it, right? So instead of me having to go DM and be like, hey, do you have a video on this? Or hey, have you ever talked about this? Or, hey, I have a question on this. I just go find it and then I have it right away instead of having to wait for it. So just a little food for thought for some of you guys listening. But again, love the questions, but again, make it easier on yourself. That's my thought on the matter. So that out of the way, though, today's episode, I want to talk a little bit about. It's going to be a couple of different things, but we're going to start off with just kind of basics, service level, understanding your system better, learning your plays, your defenses, having that stuff down, that's something that, that, you know, as we're starting to play a little bit more. I know a lot of you guys probably had your seasons pushed back in Pennsylvania. We had ours pushed back. So a lot of people are starting out playing now. Some of you guys might not even have a season right now, or maybe some of you guys are in the midst of it. But one of the biggest things and most important things, sometimes the most difficult is just learning plays and learning defenses and systems and schemes and options and all these different sorts of things that come along with playing organized basketball, right? If you go down to the ymca, go to the park and play basketball, you're just playing, right? But when you play with an actual team, typically a school team, you're going to have a lot more. You have to learn in terms of your system, okay? That can be your offensive stuff and your defensive stuff. So today I want to talk about how you can get better learning that stuff, because I know, you know, for me, I definitely, you know, back when I was younger, I had to find ways to learn that stuff quickly. And for you guys as well, like, it's stuff you got to pick up quick if you want to play, if you want Cody, that trust you, they've got to trust that you know what you're doing. And I've talked before, in on a couple different episodes actually, about the. The best way to separate yourself from other people is, is step one is controlling what you control, what you can control. Okay? There are a lot of things in basketball that you have no control over, right? You can shoot the ball perfectly and it might still go in and out and miss, right? You can make the perfect pass and your teammate might blow the layup. You can be in great position on defense, and they can still hit some crazy shot over you, right? That's, that's. That is what it is. But there are a lot of things that you do control in basketball. And one thing that you do control is your knowledge and understanding of the system that you run. How well you know the plays, how well you know the defense, how well you know the spot you're supposed to be in and what you're supposed to do in those spots. Okay, that's completely on you. Completely. There's no excuse to not know that sort of stuff. But I want to talk about today how you can actually get this stuff down, because a lot of you guys are going to learn differently, and you have to figure out what's best for you and ultimately, how you're going to be able to take what we talk about here and apply it to your own game and your own process of learning. So we're gonna start with that, and then I want to kind of dive into another, almost deeper topic with that. I don't plan on this episode being too long, but we'll see. As I get going, sometimes more stuff just pops into my head, so I just keep going with it. But to start off, I think one of the biggest things when it comes to learning your plays, learning your system, is just learning about the way that you learn, understanding the way that you. That you learn things. The best you process information, the best, that you retain information, the best. For me, I'm very much a visual learner. Like, I need to see something, and then that's how I learn it, right? If I see somebody do something, I can do that. Then it's harder for me if I'm just listening. Like, when I just hear somebody telling me how to do something, it's way easier for me to actually see them do it. And then I can go about doing the same exact thing. So that's how I am. Some people might be the opposite of that, and a lot of people, me included, are. You have to do it, right? For some of you, you might be able to see a coach draw out a play, and you're cool. A lot of you guys might have to, like, actually see it be done. And some of you guys might even need to actually be the ones doing it, right? So you got to figure out what works for you. I know for most of you guys, it'll probably be a combination of all those will help you. So figure that. Figure that out first. And then when it comes to learning this stuff, it really comes into then you being disciplined and putting in the time with it. So, for example, let's say, you know, you're at practice, and the first day, you guys go over a couple new plays, right? And with Those new plays, you know, you're a little bit confused on them, but you go through them right after practice, you get a piece of paper and you just write out those plays. You just write it out over and over and over and over and over and over again. I'm talking, like, you write out each play like 20 times, and then at that point, you feel like you're very, very confident doing that. So you go back to practice the next day and you do the same stuff. And it's. It's a lot easier for you because you've already put the time in to kind of cement that in your brain. It's not enough to just go to practice and go through plays and then never think about it until the next time you need to run it. Because you're gonna. You're. You're gonna almost always have to be able to have a little bit of a refresher. And if it's a situation where you're getting put in a game, well, you've got to be ready to go right away. You might have an opportunity. If a call comes in, you might have an opportunity to be like, oh, wait, what is this supposed to be again? No, you gotta be able to go and do it. So that's point number one is putting in the time. So that was something I used to do anytime I have to learn something new. I would literally, I would go home after practice, I would get out some piece of paper, and I would just write it out over and over and over and over again until I had it down and then the next step. And this is getting more towards, like, the doing part, you know, you. You're going to get the reps you get in practice, right? You're going to get reps and you're going to be able to go through and run those plays. But for some of you guys, maybe you don't get that many reps. Even if you get a lot of reps, sometimes that's the best way of learning it. And another addition to that is that you write that stuff out, but then you sit, you close your eyes, and you actually visualize yourself going through that, right? So if you're. If you're running a play where you're coming off of a ball screen and then you have to. You have, you know, hit the guy on a back cut, well, actually visualize yourself in that position, coming through and doing that play, making that call or getting the ball and then coming off of that screen. Whatever you want to visualize in a way that, like, you actually it's actually you, right? Like you feel the ball in your hands, you feel the shoes on your feet, and you're looking through that first person view of you actually going through that play. Okay, maybe you guys run a flex offense, right? And you're confused by that. We. Well, picture yourself in that offense, running through it. Once you have it written down, then actually put yourself in that position. Visualization is, it's just such a powerful thing. We'll get to that in a second. But one of the biggest things is like this is the process you have to take upon yourself. For some of you guys, it might be a five minute process. You might be good with everything in five minutes. Some of you guys might take a couple hours. It really comes down to you figuring out for yourself what, what, how much time do I need to put in so that I know this stuff really, really well? That's what it is. And I would say the next step to that is when you learn something new. Cool. Get it done. That, that, that night or whatever, whenever you can after. Let's just cement that in. But then a great thing you can do before practices, before games is take 10, 15 minutes, maybe not even, maybe five minutes, and just go through stuff, go through plays, go through defensive schemes, go through actions. You have to know. Go through that stuff again. Just review it for yourself. Okay. That might mean writing it out once or twice and then maybe visualizing it as well, just so you're primed and you're ready to go immediately. It could be the same thing if it's a drill, right? If there's a drill that you don't know or that you don't know very well, that you learn, maybe you're a little bit confused on. Write that out and then visualize yourself going through it and doing it correctly. Because once you start to do that consistently every single day, you're just going to bring a higher level of mental focus to each practice and game that you're at. The level you're gonna be at immediately is gonna be way sharper and you're gonna be way more confident in your ability to go out and actually execute things well because you've practiced it. And what I want to get to next is the power of visualization is so, so big. And actually I just had a DM conversation with somebody about this and not like, I forget who it was, but a couple weeks ago where we were talking about like how the power that visualization has, where literally you can be sitting on your couch doing nothing but as powerful as Your brain is. You can really convince yourself that you're doing something else. That's what visualization is. There is no distinction between your brain, when it comes to doing something real and then actually visualizing yourself doing it like that. That's. It's the same sort of muscle memory response. Okay, now maybe not to the same degree. Obviously, it's better to go out and shoot 200 jump shots than it would be to think about it. But that, that thing about shooting is still like just going through shooting reps in your mind, still a good thing for you. Like, still a good thing to do. That's why I always say a really great way to get prepared for games is just to take five minutes and just visualize yourself playing well. Visualize yourself hitting shots from the spots you know you're going to get shots from. Or visualize yourself handling pressure well or whatever it might be, getting rebounds or playing good defense. Like, if you take that idea, that process of visualization, and apply it to your practices and games, the level you're going to play at consistently is going to be much, much higher. Because you're not coming at it cold, right? You're not coming at it where, you know, you would just have school or whatever. You, you, you just woke up and now you're going to practice. And so now it's like, oh, I'm just, I'm going to get there. My brain's still not fully awake yet. We're not ready to play basketball yet. Whereas if you take 5, 10 minutes beforehand and you kind of go through this stuff in your mind, it's just going to like to be at a much higher level much sooner than you normally would be. So that's something to consider when it comes to visualization, because again, the difference between two, between actually doing and visualizing, it's really like, it's a very powerful connection right there. So even just going through and saying, you know, I don't understand this drill, and you visualize yourself going through that drill, you stepping on the court next time is going to allow you to be much more confident because you've essentially done more reps. Think about it as like, you know, if you go into practice and you have, you. You get to run through a play 10 times. Okay, that, that's good, right? You run through it 10 times, then you go home, you write it down, then you visualize, you run it through it 10 more times. Well, now you're essentially getting double the mental reps, because that's really what it is. Learning plays, learning Drills, that's. It's all mental reps. So you're getting double the mental reps than everybody else is just because you take an extra five minutes to go through and visualize it again so you can start to see how that's going to compound. Now if you start to do that every single day before practice, you're visualizing 10, you know, 10 times through each play or five times through each play, well, you're going to know things a lot better than a lot of other people because you're getting extra reps. Another thing that you can do is if you, you know, maybe you're on a team, but you don't play that much, right? You're not one of the starters, you're not one of the main guys. In order to get those reps, maybe you don't get in drills, you don't get in when you run plays because the guys who play more than you get more, more playing time and they get more reps in those drills. Now that's an opportunity for you to say, hey, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and get my, my reps through my visualization so that if I do get called on, I know what I'm doing, I'm ready to go, and I can, I can go earn more reps. Okay? That's what it comes down to. It's about just taking responsibility for knowing what you need to know. Knowing plays is one of those things where it's like, if you don't know it, it really makes you look bad. Like, if you don't know it, it really does. Because to, to, to a coach, it. It says, I don't care enough to be prepared. And you know, it is a situation where you ask, like, you obviously like asking a coach, hey, coach, can you draw this up for me? Or hey, can we talk about it? Like, that's one thing, right? But getting into a game or into a practice and then not knowing something that you're supposed to know that your other teammates might know, it's just a very, very bad look, and you want to not be in that position. So it comes down to taking responsibility for knowing this stuff and making sure that the controllables, like I said, knowing the stuff, knowing your offense, your defense, all those stuff, those are taken care of because that shows like, okay, you know what? This, this guy cares enough to take care of those things that he controls. So now when we get into the game, and maybe the defense, you know, maybe they jump a passing lane or something like that, and you can't go through the play well. Now all you got to do is react to that. Now you're not worried about actually figuring out, oh, what's the actual play. Now you're worried about there's actual defense out there. That's what your focus should be, is. Is there's other people out there trying to stop you now, okay? The. The. The controllable part, knowing what you're supposed to be doing, you've taken care of that already, and it's gonna make things way, way easier for you. So if you find that you're struggling because the game's going really, really fast or you feel like you're showing to catch up, take care of that sort of stuff. Make sure that stuff is second nature. It's second nature for you, and then things will just start to slow down kind of naturally, and it will just get easier for you. So, again, like I said, very, very quick, but just kind of recap number one is figure out how best you learn things. If you learn best through writing things out, do that, do that as many times as you need to until you have an understanding of what you need to know. Second thing that I encourage everybody to do is visualize yourself going through that stuff, okay? Write that play out and then take some time, 5, 10 minutes. Visualize going through those. Those plays or those defenses or the actions you need to know. And do this. Continue to. To pile up those additional reps. And then the. The last thing is, every single day, do a little mental workout before your actual practice or your game. Take five, 10 minutes and just visualize, run through things just so that you're. You're. You're fresh, you're primed, you're ready to go, and let those mental reps start to add up and start to elevate the level of play that you're at when you actually step foot on the court. And it matters, okay? Be willing to put in that extra little time every single day, and you're going to start to see stuff pay off for you and become much, much easier. And eventually it's just. The plays are just something that's just second nature to you because you've done it so many times and you've gone through it in your mind so often that it's just. It's something that you do now. Okay? So those are the biggest keys when it comes to learning plays, understanding systems, all that sort of stuff that is very, very, very important. Control what you control and take responsibility for those things. Ultimately, if you want to, again, kind of earn that trust back from your teammates, your coaches, all those people. That's. That's what it comes down to. So, again, appreciate you guys listening. Appreciate you guys watching Short episode today. Like I said before, guys, questions DME at Vision Driven Basketball. And like I also said before you do that, go ahead and check my channel, search it, and then just see if I've already maybe talked about the thing that you're wondering about, because there's a good chance that I have. But if not, send me that DM also, you don't have a question for me, just give me a follow anyway at Vision Driven Basketball. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.