How To Play Well EVERY TIME (Become A Consistent Player)

Basketball is inherently inconsistent. Life in general is inconsistent. But basketball, especially the best shooters miss 60% of the threes that they take, and the best finishers in the paint miss about 40% of the shots that they shoot. So when we look at just percentages, even the best players in the world are inconsistent to an extent. And even we look at the very best of the best, they can struggle to be consistent at times. Steph Curry, this past Christmas Day shot 7 of 21 overall and 3 of 13 from 3. And then the very next game, he. He followed that up with 3 of 15 overall and 2 of 8 from 3. And that's the best shooter to ever touch a basketball. The very hardest part of being a great player is having the ability to perform consistently. And so many players struggle to be able to develop this ability. Anybody can have one good game, but far fewer players are able to string together multiple good games consistently over and over and over again. In this video, we'll go through how you can build that consistency and how you can finally reach your ceiling as a player in every aspect of the game. Let's get into it. So when it comes to building consistency and really becoming that consistently great player who over and over again can perform at a high level, I think it's important that we focus in on a couple of things. And the first thing is that you have to learn how to win the controllables. So, like I said, basketball is inherently inconsistent, right? Because you have a goal that you're trying to accomplish and someone is trying to stop you from doing it. Right. Everyone has varying levels of ability, of strengths, weaknesses, and it becomes very difficult to be consistent when, especially as you continue to progress and play against better players and better people trying to stop you from completing whatever your goal is. Right? If your goal is to make a shot, there's somebody or in a game, five players actively trying to stop you from completing that. If your goal is to get a stop, there's five players actively working against that goal. Right? So we have to understand that there's a lot of things going against you, and that's why basketball is inherently going to be an inconsistent game. Okay. I think it's important, though, that we find ways to win the controllable things. And so you have to make it your goal to not only just play with effort and bring effort every time you're on the court, but you have to try and have the most effort. You have to win in this category. When I say effort, I. I mean first of all, like, the physical effort, like are you going 100% all the time? Because the more often that you're doing that, the more you're going to put yourself in a position to have good things happen. Right. When I say when the control was, it's really about doing the things that are rights, doing the right things. And the more that you. The more often that you do the right things, or I should. I should phrase it, the more that you do. The more that you do the right things, the more likely it is that the right things are going to happen to you. So it's important that we can bring that effort, first of all. So, again, just like, are you playing as hard as possible at all times? That's the first thing. Because I think a lot of players think that they're playing hard. But are you playing hard every second that you're on the floor? Because if you are, it's going to put you in a position where it's more likely that good things are going to happen to you. And we want to give ourselves the best likelihood of being successful. Again. I already gave you guys the. The percentages here. Like, the best shooters in the world are missing 60% of their threes, right? So our goal has got to be how do we give ourselves the best chance of being successful on this particular play? And it all starts with controlling the controllables and winning the controllables. And the first one is effort. So physically, that's a. That's kind of a given, but also just mentally so understanding, okay, what am I. What is my goal? Like, what am I trying to do here? If I have the ball in my hands, what do I want? Okay, I know this defender is kind of weak off of, you know, weakness in terms of me attacking him. Like, maybe they're kind of slow, or maybe they're, you know, a little smaller than me, so I can kind of get to the rim and be able to finish, you know, through them or, you know, despite any sort of contact, or maybe this fender is a little bit slower so I'm able to get by them. And you have to kind of have that ability, that understanding in those different situations. So there's understanding basketball from more of a conceptual point of view and, like, understanding matchups. What. What advantages do I have, what disadvantages do I have? But then also just knowing, like, the offense that your team runs and where can I be successful? What, like, what positions am I going to be in where I need to be good and poorly, putting in that effort and that. That comes through doing. But obviously, like, watching film was something that can help you a lot with that, with understanding, hey, what am I missing? Like, are there opportunities that I'm missing out on, or am I making poor decisions in these different situations? Why am I not being successful? So are you putting in the effort on that front as well to really challenge yourself and. And try and find where you're struggling and how you can be better? I think that's a version of effort that. That a lot of players overlook, and they just kind of go out and blindly do things and they never take a second to actually reflect on what they're doing and whether it's working or not working. And if it's not working, what do I need to do? And if it is working, how do I repeat this? How do I put myself in a position to do that again or do it more often or do it more consistently? And I think that's a part of effort that's controllable that a lot of players just kind of ignore because, again, they're not locked in mentally. They're not focused enough on those sorts of things, right? So you have to find ways to control everything that you possibly can control. Because again, you're not going to control who you're playing against. You're not going to control if they're making shots that day. You're not going to control if they run this specific defense against you or they throw this certain match about you. You don't control those things. You don't control whether or not the refs give you a call or they don't give you a call. You don't control whether or not a coach calls a play for you or doesn't, or starts you or doesn't. You only control your effort physically and mentally. Those are things that you need to keep in mind when we talk about the controllable things, right? Unless you're a computer, right. Or, you know, you're an AI robot, you are incapable of perfection, right? If you're a computer, you can. You can execute a task perfectly every single time. You can be built that way as a human, that's. You're not able to do that, right? There's a lot of complex things you can do that maybe computers can't do. But when it comes to perfection, your goal has to be, how can I get as close to that as possible as often as possible. That's got to be the goal. So that's where effort really matters. Again, it's going to give you the highest chance of that happening. So first thing is win the controllables don't just control them, but aim to be the best when it comes to effort. When it comes to, again, just how locked in you are mentally and how much you challenge yourself to find ways to improve, I think that's really, really important. The second thing is to have an understanding of the process. So when it comes to becoming consistent, there's a process of it. And I hear from players all the time, for example, who they might struggle to score consistently, right? They might have a game where they score 14 points and then the next game they score 2, and then they have a game where they score 12 points and the next game they only have 4 and then the next game they have 17 points and then the next game they only have 3 points and they are, you know, they're kind of up and down with their scoring or whatever the case may be. And they're like, their question is like, how do I become consistent? I keep having these one off performances and I just want to be more consistent. So the thing you have to understand is that the last thing that comes is consistency, right? This is, this is an analogy that I use with my players all the time. So for example, if we're working on a new type of shot, right, let's say we're in the gym and we're trying to add a floater and you know, maybe we, you know, we kind of intro it and then we start working it in like live situations and you know, they're missing the shot and they're like, man, why do I keep missing? Like, I know that I'm supposed to take the shot, like I'm making the right decisions and it feels good, but I'm not making, making consistently. And my reminder to them always is that the makes come last and the consistent makes come last, right? You're going to make shots here and there, but the consistency of those makes is going to be the last thing that comes. The first thing that's going to come is, okay, do I actually like understand that the shot is an option for me? And then the second thing is, okay, do I make good decisions in terms of when do I get to that shot and why do I get to that shot? And then the next thing is, okay, I'm able to make that shot. And then the next thing that's going to come, the last thing is going to be I can consistently make that shot. So there's a whole process and consistency is the last part of it. It's the same thing when it comes to being consistent in anything in terms of Games, right? If you are having moments where you're scoring really well and then you're not scoring well and you're back scoring well, a lot of times what that is is just you going through that process. And so you have to be able to stick through that and understand that if I'm having these, these, these moments of success, right, And I still feel like I'm not doing consistently enough, a lot of players like panic or they, they think that what they're doing is not working or they get away from what we just talked about, control, the controllable things and when they do that, they're actually, that's the worst that you can do because it's all just a part of that process of you finally building to that consistency level. But you have to go through those moments where you aren't consistent all the time, where you have a great performance that you don't. And that's where it goes back to what we just talked about. When you have those poor performances, are you really doing a great job of, of evaluating why? What am I missing? What happens? Right? Is it a case where you just miss shots? And again, it goes back to what I just said. If that's the case. Sometimes it's just because you have to keep doing and eventually the consistent makes will happen, but you're not there yet in your process, you just to keep doing what you're doing and eventually you'll be there. Maybe it's that you don't make good decisions yet consistently and you've got to work to build at that point right there. But are you really going through and saying, hey, what mistakes am I making? Why is it that I'm inconsistent and then really hammering home on that and understanding that hey, if I'm doing the right things that I'm seeing success, I've got to keep doing what I'm doing and eventually the consistency is going to come, but it's going to come last. You have to have that patience to be able to continue to do those right things and know that, hey, I might not see that consistent performance right away. I probably won't, but eventually I will if I'm able to stick it out and, and, and do what I do. And again, eventually that's how you become a consistent high level player. So if you're in that season of inconsistency, the best thing you can do is just keep pushing through that because again, you're going to come out the other side of that as that consistent player. But it's going to be the last part of that journey for you. Okay, so let's talk about steps to take when we look at becoming consistent, becoming someone who can perform at a high level, consistently at that level that you're capable of consistently. And the first thing I think is really important is you don't want to compare yourself to others. One of the worst things you can do is compare yourself to other players. So whether it's your teammate or an opponent or somebody you see on Instagram, comparing yourself to them in terms of, oh, they, you know, had a game where they just scored 20, then they scored 25, then they scored 23, and here I am scoring 17, and then I scored 4, and then I scored 7, and you get all, you know, down on yourself over that. That's like the worst thing you can do. Because comparison, first of all, in general, is just a bad thing. Comparison is either going to lead to a feeling of inferiority or superiority, neither of which is going to be helpful for you long term. Because if you compare yourself to someone and you make. It makes you feel inferior, well, you're probably not going to be able to compete at a very high level against that person. Or it could turn into a, oh, you know, I don't have a chance. Like, I'm never going to be able to be good enough. And you sort of lose that confidence or you lose that desire to continue to push yourself forward. You lose the belief that you can achieve those things, or you have that feeling of superiority when you compare yourself to somebody. And what that can lead you to is just arrogance, right? Where you start to go away from what we mentioned a couple times here, which is doing the right things, putting in the right type of work. And if you consistently feel like, oh, I'm above that person, I don't need to worry about that. Eventually that arrogance can kind of creep in. You can start to forget what got you to that point, and that's where you can become susceptible to all of a sudden taking steps backwards, Right? So comparison is usually going to lead to one of those two things, both of which are bad for you long term. So in general, we don't want to compare. But we have to understand, when it comes to this, again, everybody's at a different place. Some people have worked through the process to the point where they're now that consistent player. And if you compare where you're at to where they're at, it's not a. It's not a. You don't have all of the. All of the, you know, ingredients to that Recipe, so to speak. Like, you don't, you don't know what's actually gone into where they're at right now. You only see the product that, that you know everyone else sees but you. Again, you don't know all the stuff that went into that. So by you comparing where you're at is where somebody else is at. You don't have the full picture. So it's already going to be an answer that doesn't have all of the necessary points that are going to give you anything helpful. Right? You can make a comparison and say, hey, I feel like I'm not, you know, this, I'm not that. But you don't know what that person was when they were at your point, right? You don't, you don't know those things. So that's the first thing. And when it comes to that, like, again, that can get you away from focusing on just doing the right things because you want to skip steps in the process. This person's doing that and they're doing that and you start jumping all over the place. You don't, you want to focus on doing the right things. That kind of leads to my next point, which is focus on the processes. So continue to do those right things. So put in the right type of work, study the game that we've, like we've talked about and do the things that you know are going to push you towards your goals and towards being successful. And then understand the fact that consistency is going to be the last part of that. Right after you've done the right things over and over and over again, you've, you've gotten better, you've seen some, some success, you've had some failures. After all of that is when the consistency is going to come in. So if you're not able to work through the failures, you're never going to be able to get to the consistency part. I think that's really the, the overarching message here is that if you want to be a consistent player, you have to earn it. You have to earn consistency. You do that by being able to fail and still get back up and keep on going and continue to do those right things, even when you don't see the results of it right away. And so if you want to be a consistent player at a high level, you've got to understand that success is going to come, failure is going to come, but the things that you do can't change. The process can't change. You have to continue to focus on just doing the right things. Again, like I said earlier when you when you do the right things consistently, there's a much higher chance that the right things are going to happen to you and I think that is really where you need to be at if you want to become a consistent player. So hopefully that helps you out. Hopefully you gain some insight from that. Drop a comment down below. Let me know what you think. If you have questions, anything for me. Make sure you click the top link in my description down below to get my free Elite perimeter score program going to help you take your game to that next level. You want to start building those skills to become that consistently high level player. This is something that you can commit to. Again a process you can follow is going to help take you to that level. So make sure you click that again link in the description down below. I appreciate you for watching. I'll talk to you soon. Peace.