The 3 Steps To Becoming An UNSTOPPABLE 1 on 1 Scorer

Listen, you can be the best team player ever. You can always make the right pass, you can always play great defense, you can always make the right decision. And that's going to be super valuable to an extent. But here's the thing. There are certain times and there's certain places where you just need to be able to get a bucket if you play basketball for any amount of time that you understand the fact that plays don't always work, sets don't always work, and things don't always go as planned in a game of basketball. That's why teams need players who can go make it happen and get a bucket when it's needed. And that's what separates decent offensive players from elite ones. So if you want to put yourself into that elite tier of offensive player, you need to become somebody who can win these one on one matchups consistently at a high level. So whether you just want to start beating your friends one on one at the park or at the gym, or you want to become your team's go to scorer in those one on one situations in real games. In this video, I'm going to take you through three keys to becoming an elite one on one player. Let's get into it. Hear me out because I think it's really important and I don't really hear anybody talk about it. When we look at guys who are the best one on one scorers in the NBA. So you look at guys, Luka Doncic, you look at James Harden, you look at these guys who can seemingly score at will, especially those two are great examples because they're not insane, they're great athletes. But when you compare them to the rest of the NBA, you know, they're not John Morant, you know, head above the rim, like they're not like that. So it's really valuable to look at these guys and see like what do they do that makes them so hard to guard? And when we look at a lot of the best one on one scorers, the theme that we see is that they're super strong physically, they're really, really strong. The best scorers have that strength advantage. When you look at any level of basketball, a lot of times the best scorers are going to be the ones who have that physical strength. And when I say strong, I mean like weight room strong. Like when you look at again those best guys, Take Steph Curry for example, great example, where you know, you'll hear guys on the warriors and trainers in the warriors talk about how Steph Curry's deadlift was like one of the strongest on the entire warriors roster. And this is a guy who's, you know, 63190, not the biggest guy, but pound for pound, one of the strongest guys on that team. If not pound for pound, one of the strongest guys in the NBA. And he's one of the best isolation scorers in the NBA. So it's important to understand that correlation between having that strength and being able to handle yourself, right? Being strong just gives you much more leeway in terms of what you can accomplish. You're going to be able to drive and handle contact, finish through contact. You're going to be able to get to places that players who are weaker just won't be able to do. And that's where being strong is really, really important. It also allows you to play at your own pace, right? Guys who don't have that sort of strength unless you're really, really quick, right? You have that speed advantage. It's going to be hard for you to really be able to create any sort of advantage for yourself in the matchup that you see. But if you know that the guy guard you're stronger than the guy guarding you, all that you're going to need is a step, a little advantage. What is something we're going to get into in a minute here. So stay tuned for that because this is really going to play hand in hand with that. But all you need is a little bit of an advantage. And you know, like, I have this guy physically. And the best part about this and the reason that I'm starting off with this is because this is an area that anybody can get better at, right? There are limits when it comes to, you know, the. Are you able to ever going to be able to jump 45 inches in the air and. And dunk over three people, right? The majority of people know, right? Because that's just. A lot of people just can't do that, right? And obviously you can get better at that, but getting stronger is something that every single player can do and something that if you do, you're going to see very noticeable improvements, especially when it comes to your ability to just score one on one, right, or win those matchups. I also wanted to start off with this because I think there's a huge misconception, especially in basketball, that there's something wrong with lifting weights. Like for some reason, it's not for everybody. Like, I shouldn't be doing that. But again, you look at every NBA team, you look at every college team, I don't care what level every single team, everybody is Lifting though, every single, you know, NBA team and you know, the majority of college teams have strength coaches who are getting paid a lot of money to help their guys get stronger. And they're using those different weight room sorts of lifts for that. Okay? So a lot of players, especially younger players, are so, they're so torn on, oh, should I be lifting? Should I not be lifting? If you're not lifting, right, I'll answer the question. If you're not lifting, you are going to get left behind because you're just not going to be strong enough, right? Or maybe you'll be strong enough, but you're not going to be stronger than everybody else, which is going to limit you in terms of what you can do, right? So your goal should be to get as strong as possible. Now this doesn't mean that you need to become a bodybuilder, right? This doesn't mean you need to become Mr. Olympia. But challenging yourself, getting stronger is really important. So let's talk about just what that looks like. I'll make it super simple for you, right? Think about four lifts here, four compound lifts. All that means that there's more than one joint doing it. So like a bicep curl is, it's not a compound lift, right? It's a simple lift because it's only one joint. It's only my elbow that's moving at all. But a squat is my hip, my knees and my ankles all going through that, that movement. So when we talk about four lifts that if you just focus on getting stronger at these, you're going to get stronger is the bench press, squats, deadlifts, and then the shoulder press to the overhead press. So if you just focus on getting stronger at those four lifts, again, this is just a general thing for everybody. If you stronger, if you focus on getting stronger at those four things, that is going to translate to, to you having more success on the basketball court, especially when it comes to these one on one situations. So the second area that's really important when it comes to becoming a great one on one player is understanding how to create advantages. That's what basketball is all about. What's what offense is all about is learning how to create those advantages. And players who innately know this are the best scorers. This is how it is. So it all varies on situation and matchup, right? We talk about situation, so off the dribble, you know, we can talk about how do I gain an advantage on my defender if I catch the ball in the wing and my defender is in front of Me, what do I do to be able to gain some sort of advantage on this defender so that I can score? Whether that means to get a shot or to get all the way to the rim? What do I have to do? And simple thing is, let's just talk about off the dribble. So there's really two concepts we can look at. And the first one is making your defender move and in some direction, right? So great way we can do this is just with a lateral dribble, so getting, you know, with a flow or a hang dribble to the side and just see how they play it, right? Do they move to cut us off? Because then we can go back the other way. We can cross back over. Do they not move? Okay, well then we can just go the way that we were floating to. Do they back up anticipating a drive? Well, now we might have a shot, right? So we have to force that defender to make a choice on what they're going to take away. And when they do that, we exploit another option that they give up. So force that defender to move first. We can do that through different sorts of drop footwork or dribble forward. That's going to sell drives. So if I can sell a drive to the left to get them to lean that way or even move that way, I can cross back to my right and now I have a lane to the basket, right? It's really trying to get that defender to move laterally or not move and then gives you the opportunity to do that, right? And make sure you guys click the top link my description below to get my free program which goes through the, the stuff I just talked about goes through that, the float stuff, the drop footwork, and really making sure that you're good at being able to create these advantages. And you'll be able to see that in much more laid out terms and drills that you're going to be able to apply to what you do. So make sure you guys check that out. And you can also do this with a speed change, right? So being able to go from really slow and relaxed to hitting that, you know, that go button and then getting into that 100% speed acceleration forward is a really great way to be able to create an advantage too, right. I think having the ability to relax and be non threatening in the way that you are is something that a lot of players don't have, but the best players do. Like if you watch someone like Kyrie Irving or Steph Curry, guys who are a little bit smaller, they have the ability to make that defender relax and not think that anything is going on. And then next thing you know, boom, they're going to. And that defender is always going to be a split second behind. And usually by the time that they catch up, it's too late and they have a step on them. Okay? So being able to go from relaxed to explosive, from slow to fast, super important as well. We touch on that in the free program too. And I think ultimately, when it comes to winning one on one off the dribble, being able to control your feet is so important. And this is both in what I just talked about with our, you know, getting that defender to move laterally or being able to go from relaxed to quick, all of that is just, can I control what my feet are doing? Can I control the message that my feet sends this defender? I think it's a great way to put it. And that's a really, really important thing to be able to do is to be able to control your feet when you start, but also when you go, can I stop myself so that I can get to a shot, I can get to a change of direction, I can do whatever. Can I stop myself as well? Because a lot of players don't have the ability to stop or decelerate at a high level and that's going to limit you when you drive because that defender eventually is going to pick up on the fact that, oh, once they start going in one direction, they're not going to stop and change direction. They can't. So it becomes very easy to guard that. So you've got to be able to control your feet enough that, oh, I can, I can get to a snatch right here, change direction and then now I can get to the rim because I'm able to stop and, you know, take advantage of a defender who maybe over recovers or whatever. So being able to control your feet with starts and stops, super important. And again, we touch on that heavy inside the free program. So check that out and in the description down below, talk about off the catch. So being able to exploit your momentum with rip throughs and jabs and jab counters, really important, really simple. Probably the simplest way to score. And when you talk about the context of a five on five game that you're going to play the majority, like real basketball, the majority of opportunities you're going to get in ISO situations are going to be off the catch. It's not always going to be where you get 3, 5, 10 dribbles to set yourself up. You might have to catch the ball and then play out of a jab, right, or play out of a rip through or something like that, I think that's an important thing for you to understand is just being great in those simple situations as well. Okay. And I think the ultimate thing to think about here when it comes to the physical skills needed to be a great player in these situations is can you shoot the ball? End of the day, to be a truly elite one on one player, you have to be able to not only make shots, but sometimes make difficult shots, sometimes big shots that are a little contested, that you might be a little off balance for that. You might have picked the ball up a little bit weird, you might be getting pressured a lot, you might have gotten bumped. Can I still make those shots? That is something that is really important. And, and when I think about the two most important skills to being a great scorer, especially in one on one situations, number one is being able to shoot the ball, shoot the ball at a high level. And the number two is your ability to figure it out. So we're going to talk about that second part, being able to figure it out in a minute here. But number one is you've got to be a shot maker. You've got to be able to do it. You've got to be somebody who, if it's an open shot, like that's something you're going to make because they're going to have to respect your, your ability to shoot. If they don't respect your ability to shoot the ball, then it's going to be harder for you to drive, right? So you've got to understand how that affects it as well. So when you think about the things that you should be, have, have having at the top of your list, in terms of what I'm working on, shot making has got to be number one, right? And that's got to be threes off the catch, off the dribble. Being able to get to pull ups in the mid range when you need to, right? When that's the read that's important for you to be able to do. So being able to shoot is so important, but also just having that understanding of how to create advantages when it comes to that off the dribble and off the catch is really, really important. And then the third area that I want to talk about when it comes to becoming elite in this area, and this is going to sound weird probably at first, but stick with me here because again, I don't think it's something that people really talk about that much, but I think it's important for you to understand this is that you need to develop actual skill. And what do I mean by this? Let's, let's look at it with an analogy, right? If you have somebody who wants to become a great bench press, right? We talked about the bench press earlier on. If you're somebody and your goal is to be the best bench presser in the world, you want to bench press the. Mostly to anybody else. What do you do to get better at the bench? What do you, what do you do to get better at bench pressing? Well, there's probably a lot of things you can do, but at the end of the day, the meat and potatoes are the real stuff that is going to matter is bench pressing. You have to bench press a lot. You have to bench press heavier and heavier weight until eventually you become the strongest bench presser in the world. That's how you're going to be able to do it. You're not going to do it by doing a bunch of other things like you're going to bench press. That's going to be the focus of what you do now. That's not to say you're not going to do other lifts that might complement that, that might help. Okay, we're going to isolate my, you know, the triceps today with this exercise. We're going to isolate your upper chest with this certain variation, right? So there are certain things maybe you'll change up. End of the day, you're training to get great at the bend. So you're going to bench a lot. If you want to become the best pilot in the world, what do you have to do? You can read all the books you want to, you want about flying, you can do, you could do all the flying simulators you want to do. End of the day, if you want to become the best pilot in the world, you've got to fly planes a lot. And that's how you're going to do it. It's the same thing when it comes to becoming a great one on one player, right? If you are not ever, or if you're not seeing defense a lot, then you're not actually training what you're trying to get great at, right? Obviously we want to get better at shooting, we want to get better at ball handling, we want to get better at finishing, but we want to do that in the context of becoming a great scorer. And anytime that it matters, there's going to be defense, right? Whether that's at the park playing one on one or in a game in, you know, a playoff game in March, there's defense that you've got to be able to score against. So all that to say if your goal is to be an elite one on one player, to be a great isolation player, to be a great scorer, you need to do that every day if you can. Meaning, can I play one on one every single day? Can I play two on two, five on five? Can I play against the defender every day and force myself to, you know, figure it out? Right. I mentioned that earlier. The two most important skills when it comes to being a great scorer is shooting and your ability to figure it out. When you actually play against a live defender all the time, what you're going to start to see is you're going to see so many nuances, you're going to pick up on so many little things that you never pick up on. If you don't do that, if you just go against air all the time, if you're never putting yourself in front of that defense, you're not going to pick up on just these little things. You're going to figure out what works for you, what for you specifically, because every player is a little bit different. Everybody, every player has things that they're going to do better than others. You're going to figure out what is good for you, what's not good for you. You're going to figure out how to read defenses, how to read defenders, how to exploit the weaknesses of those defenders. You're going to be able to eventually just look at a defender and be like, okay, I can probably score on them that way because I think that's going to be weakness or I know that's a weakness. I'm going to look for this. You get to that point and you build that confidence level by doing that a lot. That's the way that you get to that point. So it's important that you do that. You'll pick up on patterns. And this is ultimately how you become a great scorer, is by practicing against defense as often as you possibly can. Even if it's just, hey, you know, ended my workout today and there's some random person I'm going to see if they want to play one on one to seven. Right? Just doing that, that's a, that might take you 5, 10 minutes, but doing that as often as possible is just, that's going to help you become the scorer that you want to be. Right? So that's what this is what I mean when I say the ability to figure it out. Right? You have to. Can I put you into a situation where you know, you can catch the ball no matter what the matchup is, how the defender is guarding you, what else is going on in the game, you can figure out a way to put the ball in the basket. That is what an elite scorer can do is it doesn't matter what's going on. Doesn't matter how they get guarded, they, they get bumped, they get forced left, force, right, they get, you know, this sort of, you know, stunt thrown at them, they see this sort of ball screen coverage, it doesn't matter. They're going to figure out a way to score regardless. Because that's what they, that's what they work on, is the ability to figure it out. And how do we work on that? Ability to figure it out is by playing a lot. And as you play a lot, you're going to have to figure things out. You get to figure out, how do I score on this guy? Oh, this guy's, you know, four inches taller than me. So how do I score on him? This guy's stronger than me, how do I score on him? This guy's quicker than me, how do I score him? You're going to figure these things out as you do it. So the two most important things, and if you're watching this, you're probably working on your shooting, I hope, right? But are you working on your ability to be a player who can figure it out? That is really, really important. So something that I would implore you to work on, right? And when you do these things again, you're going to see yourself become that score that you want to be. So there's a time and a place for everything, right? There's a time and a place to work on your skills on air, right? That's certainly valuable. But you also need to put yourself in a position to train or to play against somebody else as much as you possibly can. And when you combine those things of working on your skills and then developing, you know that, that in game skill by working against defense, that's how you become an elite level player. And then throw, throw into that. You getting stronger, you're going to be hard to guard. I appreciate you guys for watching. Let me know in the comments if you got anything from this. Make sure you guys click that top link in my description below to get my free elite perimeter score program. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.