The 3 Principles That EVERY High IQ Player Understands

Little known fact, I'm actually pretty terrible at fishing now. I've only done it a couple times, but pretty much without fail, I'm not gonna catch anything. Except for one time when I did, I was on a camping trip with a couple of my friends, and we were up at a lake house and got up one day, and we're like, you know what? Let's. Let's go fishing today. So we got in the boat, went out on the lake, and I was really amazed and, like, kind of taken aback with the whole process behind how my more experienced friend would find a good spot for us to fish. So we. We drive around the boat and we get to a spot and he'd be like, no, it's a little too shallow right here. So we keep moving. We get to a new spot, he'd be like, no, it's a little too sunny right here. So we go to a new spot and then be like, no, there's too many people here, or there was just a boat here, so we got to go somewhere else. So there were all these different things that went into it. And I tried my best to copy everything that he was doing. So every little strategy, every little tactic that I could see him using, I tried my best to emulate that. And honestly, I felt like I did a pretty good job to copy almost exactly what he was doing that day when we were on the boat right there. And even though I felt like I was doing pretty well, I only caught one fish that day. And when you think about what the fish looked like, just imagine the smallest fish that you could possibly catch, and that's the one that I caught right there. But on the other hand, my more experienced friend caught a ton of fish that day, including some that were, like, respectable sized. So for me, I was sitting there like, why is it that I'm doing the same things that he's doing, and yet I'm not getting good results? And he's just doing what I feel like I'm doing, and yet he's getting these great results. And honestly, it wasn't until, like, a couple of days ago that I really started to piece together exactly why that was and how it actually applies to a lot more than just this. The difference is tactics versus principles. I was using tactics. So cast the line into that spot. Use this technique. Make sure you move your line like this. Any sort of tactic that I could see him using, I. I was trying to emulate that. But my friend wasn't motivated by tactics. He was motivated by principles. So he understood the principles behind catching fish. And so any tactic or strategy that he may have used was only motivated by the fact that he understood the underlying principles behind it. Following tactics versus following principles leads to wildly different outcomes in very, very different levels of success. And as I experienced firsthand that day, and so I want to talk about how this experience actually relates to you as a basketball player when it comes to being great and developing a high basketball IQ and just results on the court. The age that we live in when it comes to social media and honestly, basketball training in General is almost 100% tactic driven. So you've obviously seen the videos out there where it's like, try this move to destroy your defender or, or use this one on one move to win your next matchup, try this shot fix to start making more threes, whatever. All these little tactics that are pushed that are out there and that's the majority of what players have access to, that's the majority of content that you probably see when you're looking at basketball training stuff. So here's the thing, these types of videos and these tactic driven things aren't necessarily a bad thing, right? We need tactics, we need to understand tactics and usually that's where we start. We start with, hey, how do I get better at dribbling, how do I get better at shooting, how do I make more layups, how do I understand the game more? Like we, we ask these tactic based questions, which is where we start. But the problem is that rarely when we talk about basketball training, social media does it get any deeper than that. We never really learn the principles. So that's why a lot of players struggle to really see results and to see consistent results. A lot of players out there are like me when I went fishing, trying to copy all these tactics and tricks that I saw, but having no idea of the actual principles behind those things that are actually going to make you successful. So they don't see the results that they want to get. And it's because they don't actually understand the why behind anything that they're doing. So you're always going to be limited and you're probably going to struggle to actually see true success. And that's why social media and basketball training, social media has such a negative effect on a lot of players, is because we're so surface level, we're so tactic driven. So the goal is that we become principle driven instead of tactic driven. The best players understand the underlying principles behind how to be successful on the court. So today we're going to talk about three Principles that every high IQ player understands. And understanding these three things completely reshapes how you actually approach the game, how you play the game, and ultimately the results that you're going to see. A lot of times we ask these tactic based questions, these very simple serviceable questions, because we don't understand the principles. But when we get those principles, we have the tools to be able to answer these questions, be sufficient to succeed in a lot of different situations, and ultimately find that level of success that we work for. So let's talk about these three principles that every high IQ player understands. Number one is creating advantages. So the entire goal of offense is to score points. And the best way to score points is to create advantages that we can exploit. So your entire goal as a player when you're on offense should be how do I create an advantage for myself or for my teammates? So there's a couple of different types of advantages we can talk about. Number one is a momentum advantage. So this would be like a closeout coming to you when the defender is closing out to you. It's the most difficult thing that they're going to have to do on the defensive end. And so we want to exploit that momentum and how fast they're coming towards us. And a lot of times we're going to be able to get by them and create what's call it a numbers advantage. So when we attack that closeout, next thing we know, we beat our initial defender. Now it's a five on four. So the defense is at a disadvantage, we're at an advantage. So that momentum advantage we can exploit and that can lead us into that numbers advantage. The other type of advantage we could have is a mismatch. So this could be what I call a turtle or a mouse situation. So for example, if it's a turtle situation, it would be like if you have a really slow player, switch onto a really quick player. Now that quick player who has the ball should attack that matchup because they have an advantage in that individual matchup. Could also be a mouse situation. So imagine like the, the offense runs a down screen and the defense switches it and next thing you know you have a, a 7 footer who just got a player who's 5, 10 switched onto them in the post. That's a, that's an example of a mouse situation. So we want to give the ball to that bigger player and let them take advantage of that mismatch right there. So we want to look to create those matchups as much as possible. Now when we see those matchups the question becomes, what's the best way to attack it? Right. So for a momentum advantage, when we see a close out coming, the best thing to do might be just to rip through an attack or a jab, an attack or a shot, fake an attack. If it's a size mismatch, we might look to post them up or drive at them because we know that we're going to have an advantage towards the rim. If it's a quickness advantage, we may look to drag them out and then go one on one, or maybe we try and get them into another action. Whatever we do, we want to have a plan when it comes to the advantages that we create. So if we don't have the advantage, right, because obviously we have to get to that point. If you don't have an advantage, meaning you have the ball in your hands and there's no momentum to attack, there's not a size mismatch or athleticism mismatch, then what we need to do is look to get to a trigger. All that a trigger is is just an action. And all that an action is is something that is going to force the defense to react. So an example of a trigger or an action would be like a ball screen or a pin down or a dribble handoff or any, any sort of thing that gets the defense to have to make a decision on how we're going to guard. This is an example of a trigger because it triggers something to happen when, when it comes to how the defense is going to guard us. So we utilize actions or triggers until we have an advantage to attack. And this is how a lot of times you're going to know the answer to the tactical question that a lot of players ask, which is, well, when's the best time to shoot or the best time to drive or the best time to pass or the best time to cut? When you can ask yourself, hey, do I have an advantage to attack? Okay, no. That means that I need to get to a trigger. Now what's the best way to get to a trigger? Well, it could be to keep the ball and get a ball screen, but it also could be to pass the ball away and go set a screen for somebody. Because there is an action right there that could create something that will trigger an advantage for us right there. Okay, so do I have an advantage? No. Then I'm going to look to get to an action. Do I have an advantage? Yes. Okay, well, now I'm going to attack that right there because that's ultimately what we're trying to do right there. Okay. So that's the first thing that high Q players understand is we want to create advantages. And how do we create those advantages if I don't have one right now? And again, that's going to answer a lot of tactical questions that you might have as a player. So there's, number one going with that. Let's talk about the second principle that every player needs to understand, and that's the concept of being patient with triggers and playing fast with dominoes. So there's times where you can hold the ball and be patient, and there's also times where you need to do something with the ball right away. So going back to the concept of triggers, right, this is the time to be patient. If you're handling the ball in a ball screen, you might have the ball in your hands for a few seconds because you have to wait for the defense to make a decision or to give you something you're coming off of ball screen and the defense is. They might not make a decision right away, or you might be able to see the decision right away, or you might have to dribble a little bit more to put more pressure and force a help defender to step in. And. And now we created an opportunity for a kick out which will lead to a closeout, which will lead to what we just talked about with the momentum advantage right there. Okay. So when we're inside of a trigger or an action, we might be able to play slow and be patient, keep the ball in our hands. But going back to the last example right there, we come off the ball screen, we're patient, we see a defender help in, so we kick out to create that closeout. Well, that player who catches the ball in the kick out, they've got to play fast. Whenever we get to those situations where they dominoes start to fall. Just meaning that the defense has to play out of a disadvantage. Well, we want to be fast, so we want to play what's called 0.5 decisions, meaning when we catch the ball in an advantage situation, we want to make a decision to either shoot, drive, or pass within half a second of the ball being in our hand. So we get back to that example of that kick out coming. And now there's a closeout. Well, we're going to pick within half a second whether we're going to shoot one, going to drive, or we're going to pass the basketball. Because now the dominoes are falling. Right? Think about that example of you knock over one domino and they all start to fall. Well, that's what happens when we create an advantage or, or we put the defense in a disadvantage state is that now we can attack that, that closeout and maybe we draw somebody else in, we kick it again and now they have a wide open shot, right? Or they have another closer to attack and they get a wide open layup right there. So when we're in those domino situation, the worst thing we can do is catch it and hold it and be slow down because it gives the defense a chance to recover and get rid of that numbers advantage, of the momentum advantage. And next thing we know, we've killed the advantage, which like we talked about, that's all we're trying to do on offense. Okay? So understanding that when we're in triggers like a ball screen, we can be patient, we can be slow, but when we come out of that and we're playing in dominoes, we want to be quick. We want to, we want to play in these 0.5 decisions and be very quick with the things that we're doing right there. Okay? So whenever you're receiving the ball, coming out of an action, you want to think about playing in point five decisions. So do I drive, do I shoot or do I pass the ball? And I've got to be able to do that within half a second of catching it. And when you play that way, you're going to be able to create much more and the game is going to be simplified for you and you're going to put a lot more pressure on the defense, which ultimately we want to do. And then the third principle that all high Q players understand is the idea of one to basket and one to ball. So this can apply in a variety of different situations. But I think, I think the most important situation to understand this in is when it comes to pin downs or also known as down screens or away screens, pretty much any offense is going to run some sort of pin down or away screen, whatever they might call it. But it's really important to understand this concept of one, two basket, one to perimeter, or some, some call it one to basket, one to ball, but essentially one is going in, one is going out. What I mean by this is that when you come off of a pin down, you basically have two options, right? If you are having a pin down set for you, you're either going to go to the rim, which is going to come from a tight curl. So you tight curl around that screen being set for you and go to the rim, or your defender overplays it and you backdoor it. So those are Your two ways you would get to the rim. If that happens, we have one to the rim, meaning the person who set that screen is going to pop out to the perimeter. Now we have one to basket, one to perimeter, and it's really hard for the defense to always take away both of those locations. Right? They're going to guard, they see Taiko going to the basket, they have to worry about that and worry about the perimeter. So now that might create an open shot for that person who's on the perimeter. Or it could create a momentum advantage because there could be a closeout that happens. And now again, we're in that advantage situation into dominoes, which is what we talked about wanting to do on offense. And so there's the first option going to the rim. So your defender is chasing you over the screen. You tie curl it or they overplay it, back door it, one to basket, screener pops out. Now we have one to the perimeter, and now we're balanced. The defense has to take away two things, which is hard to do. The second option coming off of a screen is to go to the perimeter. So to to flare or fade, whatever you might call it, depending on the offense that you're in. When that happens, the person who sets the screen is not going to be one who dives to the basket. Now we have one to perimeter and we have one going to the basket right there. So again, the defense is to worry about taking away both of those locations. Very, very difficult to do right there. And as simple as this sounds, it's hard for defenses to guard this, especially if it's a defense that isn't great when it comes to discipline or communication, you're going to find that you're going to be open. A lot of times over here, if you're setting a screen and your teammate goes out to the perimeter by you just diving to the basket, a lot of times defense will fall asleep, you're going to be open. And likewise, if you set that screen and your teammate goes to the basket off a tight curl or a back door, you just popping out to the perimeter, a lot of times it's going to put you into either a situation for an open shot or a situation for a closeout to attack. And now we have the momentum advantage that we talked about earlier right there. We we can also get to the same concept of 12 basket, 12 perimeter. When we talk about a 45 cut, all that a 45 cut is is a weak side action. So the most simple example of this is when the ball gets Entered into the low post, the weak side, which is just the opposite side of the ball. That wing player is going to do. It's called a 45 cut to the basket, which means a straight line cut to the basket from the wing and the player who's in that weak side corner is going to lift up to the wing along the three point line. Now again we have one to basket, one to perimeter. The defense has got to worry about taking away the 45 cut and they've got to worry about taking away that weak side lift as well on the perimeter. So again, usually when this action happens, one of those options is going to be open right there. So important to understand that as well. Right there we can also get to a 45 cut off of like a drive. So somebody drives, you can also 45 cut, other person can lift. Now we get one, two basket and, and we get one on the perimeter right there. So you want to keep this concept in mind, especially if you're involved in pin down actions. Because chances are if you're in, if you force a defense to guard two areas of the floor, somebody's going to be open and then boom, you've created an advantage that we can attack right there. Back to our first point. As a coach and a trainer, I understand the insane value that there is behind understanding the principles of the game. And, and if you don't understand the numerous principle, we just talked about three right now. But if you don't understand the numerous principles that go into things, then you're going to struggle to play at a high level and you're really going to struggle to perform well consistently because one thing will change and all of a sudden the tactics that you've memorized aren't going to work the same way. So if you don't understand the principles, you're not going to be able to adapt. If you can't adapt, then you're not going to be able to play well consistently because someone will throw something at you and you're not going to know how to respond to it. But when you have an understanding of the principles, you, you're able to handle any situation and that's how you truly become a great player who can have confidence on the floor because they know that no matter what they see from the defense, they're going to be able to find a solution to those things. That's what we want to be right there. That's why I created Basketball IQ Academy. And Basketball IQ Academy is a full basketball IQ program that was designed not just to help you learn the tactics behind the game. We, we definitely talk about tactics. Like I said, tactics are not a bad thing. You need to know them. But we go beyond that. Instead of just understanding the tactics, we want to understand the principles. So we dive into what these principles are and it helps you to gain a deep understanding of those things. Again, so much that's out there is tactics surface level, and we go far beyond that. We go into the principles, into the deep understanding of what's actually happening in, in the game of basketball. Basketball IQ Academy is full of over 40 lessons, film breakdowns, classroom sessions, offensive and defensive diagrams that again are there to help you learn the game on a whole new level and understand the principles behind being successful as a player. And just by going through and implementing things that we talk about in the system, you're going to completely change who you are as a player, which is going to change everything about the game for you in a positive way. You just have to score points more easily, create for yourself and your teammates more easily, and play with just a whole new level of confidence because again, like we talked about, you're going to have the belief and the assuredness that no matter what happens, you understand the game well enough to be able to make things happen and be successful. And that's where you truly want to be if you want to be a successful player. So like I said, I created that for players who don't want to be stuck at the service level, who want to take the game to that next level. So that's linked in the description down below. Highly encourage you to check that out. Hopefully this video gave you some ideas on the principles that you can, you can start to understand and start to live by and play by. And now you're going to be able to see success in those situations because you're going to understand what you're trying to do, what is your ultimate goal. And ultimately great players are principle driven and not tactic driven. That's exactly where you want to be. So I appreciate you for watching. Like I said, Basketball IQ Academy link down below if you're interested, drop a Like subscribe. If you're new, leave a comment for me. You got something from this you've acquired question. Whatever. Drop it down below. I appreciate you for watching. Talk soon. Peace.