The 3 Steps To Maximizing Your Off-Season (Podcast Episode 59)

Foreign. Appreciate all you guys for tuning in. Everybody's listening. Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And of course, everybody who's watching right now on YouTube, shout out to you guys if you guys are on YouTube. Make sure you guys drop a like and subscribe if you're new. And everybody who's listening to Apple Podcast right now, do me a huge favor, scroll down to the bottom of the page, leave a review, let me know what your comments, your thoughts on the show. Like, you know, like, you guys who have been around know that whenever I have a new comments or a new review on, on Apple Podcasts, I read it. So start off the show. We've got one new one this week. Says it's from jmk. He says, jesus loves you, coach. Crazy how much this helped me appreciate my man, Jesus loves you too. And like I said, like I always say, guys, like, you know, reviews really help the show in terms of growing, in terms of new people seeing it. And so very appreciative of that. And you know, that's, that's all I have on that end. So we'll hop into it. Actually, one more thing before we hop into it this week. I've kind of been brainstorming a little bit just thinking about, you know, this coming summer potentially looking to do some camps or clinics. And so I kind of just want to get like a initial kind of gauge on like, you know, I, I, here's the thing. Like, you know, I get to kind of coach so many of you guys indirectly, semi directly through the Internet, through YouTube, through my programs, the primitive score system, the elite shooters and whatever it might be, and obviously the podcast and my videos and all that sort of stuff. And I would love to be able to like, you know, I'd love to be able to work with some of you guys in person as well. You know, that's for me, that's what I, I love doing the most, is like actually on the court, like, let's work. So I've just been kind of brainstorming like, you know, maybe doing some camps or clinics this summer and specifically hosting some of them in my area. So I live in central Pennsylvania in State College. So, you know, I'm just kind of get it, trying to get a gauge on like if people would be interested in that specifically you guys, there's people locally who I know I could get. But in terms of like, I would love to be able to branch this out and have this be like, you know, I've got guys from Ohio coming, guys from all around Pennsylvania Guys from Maryland, New York, New Jersey, like, it'd be awesome if, like, I could get that. That would be, that's my goal. So, you know, kind of you guys who are Mid Atlantic, you know, maybe even like New England, that's not, that's not too difficult of a drive, you know, Northeast, you know, if you're interested potentially in a clinic like that, you know, we're probably again, just kind of me getting to, to, to coach you guys, you know, being able to work different things. I'm thinking maybe even some like, classroom sessions. But I think it'd be real cool, just like kind of pack it into a day or just. I think it'd be awesome. So that's kind of just what I've been brainstorming recently. But obviously, like, you know, I got to see what kind of interest there is in that. So, you know, if you're potentially interested in that, just, you know, drop a comment for me, send me a message on Instagram, be like, hey, Coach, I'd definitely be interested in doing that. You know, just kind of, again, just like a preliminary look at what do I, what am I working with here? Like, who's, who wants to do what? Because again, I think there's a lot of. I think it could be really, really cool. You know, I have a pretty, the facility that I use is pretty all encompassing for stuff, so it would be a nice venue to host something like that at, in terms of like, being able to do on the court stuff, being able to do like, you know, like I said, like film stuff, classroom stuff. Like, just a whole day filled with like, skill development, you know, IQ stuff, just kind of learning the game and then, you know, stuff you can use going forward too. I think that's the biggest thing that I would, I would want to be able to give you guys with that. So again, anybody who's Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, any DMV area, New England, like anybody in the Northeast or, you know, around the Northeast, if you're interested, you'd be like, hey, you know what? I'd be willing to make a four or five hour drive, you know, for a day and you know, go, go hoop for who for a few hours and, and get better. Just again, drop a comment. If you're on YouTube or send me a message or whatever, however you want to let me know, send me an email. It doesn't matter, whatever. I just, it would be great to just kind of gauge initial interest in that. And again, there'll be more stuff, more details coming on that and what this summer look like. But again, if we can do something like that, I'd love to. I think it'd be awesome. So that's just kind of what I've been thinking about this week. And so we'll hop into it. So, you know, obviously this is going to come out, I think, May 31st. So basically we're in June at this point. So obviously the summer is here, right? And. And school's out. You know, everybody's, you know, college. Everybody in college coming back home, probably been back home for a minute now, and everybody who's, you know, middle school, high school, like, you guys are getting out of school. So now is really prime time when it comes to, like, the off season. Okay. Because you just have more free time, you know, for. For the most part. You know, maybe some of you guys have other things you got to do, too, but, like, for the most part, you just got more free time in the summer. So this is really where the bulk of your work is going to be done. Right. That's why, like, you know, I talk about having a camp or a clinic. Well, obviously, the summer is time to have it. So summer's time where you get to go do those sort of things. And so, you know, a question I get asked all the time is like, hey, coach, you know, what should my summer look like? Like, what should my off season look like? What should my plan be? So I kind of want to talk about that today. Kind of go through step by step, like, what is. What should your plan be for the summer? And. And just kind of in general, how to maximize your off season. So there's three main steps I want to go through here, three kind of main areas that you got to focus on, you got to hit on and make sure that you maximize and you get the most out of these next few months that you have. Because you know what the saying is, what you do in March through November is what people see. And November through February through March, right. What you do in March is actually the culmination of all the work that you did, you know, from April, May, June, July, August, September, October, like, all those months leading up to it. That's really where you, you know, that's where the results come from, is the work that you put in right now, you know, and as a coach, I'll see it too, where, like, you know, you have players who are in the gym all year, and you can tell you have players who are in the gym when November gets here and it's basketball season. And you can also Tell. Right. You know, you can't build shooters during the season. You build shooters in the off season, okay? So that's just, again, kind of emphasizing the. The importance of just maximizing the time that you have right now. So the first step to that is you have to know where you're at right now. You have to have sort of a recap of where you've been. I think this step is crucially important. And, you know, it's almost like you talk about watching film, right? You might play a game, and I talk about this all the time, but you might play a game and, you know, you might think that, oh, I did this in the game, or I did this in the game, you know, when I went up and, you know, I took that shot, it was a good shot. But you might go back and watch the film and see, like, oh, I should have passed the ball to my teammate because he was wide open, and I took a contested shot and I missed it, right? So that's something to think about right there. Like, oh, you know, you might have gotten trapped, but it was because you missed somebody that you didn't even know what happened during the game. Okay? So being able to go back and look at, oh, what happened then is great when it comes to, you know, watching, filming, getting better in that regard. But talking about this specifically, it's the same principle, right? You. You have to look back on your season and think about, okay, what went well, what I do well, what are the positives and what didn't go well, what were the negatives, what went poorly. And that's where you ultimately got to start, is recognize, okay, what. What was good, what was bad about this past season. You know, basketball is a game full of role players. And a lot of times the word. The words role player, the phrase role player gets kind of a negative, has kind of a negative connotation around it. And, you know, players act like it's a bad thing to be called a role player. And, you know, probably just, you know, like the 2k culture or whatever where, you know, you got. You. You set your guys a role player on. In your. It's been so long Since I played 2K, but I think it was like my GM, I used to play all the time. And you set your. You know, you have your. Your stars, you have your starters, you have your sixth man, your role players. And so that's kind of what everybody has in mind when think role player, they think, oh, you know, this is a guy who takes. Doesn't get a lot of playing Time or who isn't allowed to do this or isn't very good. But at the end of the day, everybody's a role player, okay? Everybody is a role player. The thing is that not everybody's role is the same. So there are some players whose role it Is to score 20 points a game. There are some players whose role it is to shoot the ball 20 times every game or shoot the ball 25 times a game. There are some players whose role it is to shoot 12 threes a game. There's some players who role it is to go out and play defense, to go out and guard the other team's best player. There's some players whose role it is to go out there and rebound and set screens. There's some players out there whose, you know, goal is to drive to the basket, okay? And that's just again, like, there's so many categories of role players. There's role players who, in the, you know, the sort of traditional sense, their role is to go in there and. And, you know, give the starter a couple minutes of a break every. Every half, right? Your. Your role is to go in there and give the starter six minutes of a break every game. And, and that's. That's a role for some players, okay? So you have to understand what your role was this past season. The truth is that every player is a role player. You have to understand what that role was. So, you know, maybe your role this year was, you know, you were a shooter, okay? So you win the game and, you know, you, they spaced you on the floor. You were supposed to be shooting shots off a driving kick, or maybe they run a couple sets for you every time, but you didn't really do much else, okay? You were, you were going to go in, you were going to shoot the ball when you were open. You were going to take shots if you had them, okay? But you weren't going to be expected to run the offense or, you know, be, you know, guard their team's best player or rebound the ball. You, you were, you had a role to, to, to fill, to fulfill, okay? On the other end of that, maybe your role was to be a defender, right? Your role was to go out there and, and play hard defense, okay, and be physical and, and get rebounds and finish possessions, okay? So that's your role right there. Understanding where you were is step one to understanding where you know how you're going to get to where you want to get to. So some players say they need to completely, like, reinvent the wheel every offseason. Like, oh, I gotta get, you know, I gotta get better at my shooting. I gotta get better at driving. I gotta become better at, you know, running the offense. Gotta get better at rebounding. Gotta get better at passing. Gotta get better at defending. Gotta get better at, you know, setting screens. Gotta get better. And that's partially true. You should get better at all those things just by the factor of experience and having another year. And in a way, you're probably gonna work on all those things a little bit, at least. But in terms of your actual focus during the off season, that's where things are a little bit different than. Than how a lot of players will approach it, right? You don't have to reinvent the wheel. You don't have to come back a completely transformed player. Right? You don't have to be, you know, you don't have to walk in the gym in November and people are looking at you like, oh, who is that guy? I've never seen him play before. You, like, that's not what the. That's not necessarily what it has to be. And in fact, if you try and focus on doing everything better, you're probably not going to get better at very much significantly to the point where it's actually a factor for you in games, especially if there's a role that you're supposed to fulfill. Okay? If your role is to be a shooter, well, you better be really good at that role. Right? If you want to maximize the amount of time you play, the impact you have, you've got to, you know, if you only shot 33% last year, your goal's got to be, I got to work until I shoot 40% from three. Okay? Maybe I want to be a guy who can drive to the basket more and get to the free throw line. Cool. You can. You can add that, too. But in the day, you have to make sure that you maximize the role that you play. If your role is to go in and, you know, be big and set screens and rebound the basketball, well, you better be working hard in the weight room all offseason so that you go out there and you can be throwing people around a little bit, okay? Because that's going to allow you to maximize the role that you play even more. And then in turn, that's going to allow you more opportunities to do those other things. Okay? So maybe you start last season as a shooter. That was your role. Okay? This next season, you come back, you've gotten better as a shooter, so your coach has to give you more minutes, you get more shots. But Maybe you also focused on, you know, developing a nice shot fake to, you know, get defenders to bite. And then you're able to get downhill into a pull up into a finish, you know, to get fouled. Now you go to the free throw line. So you developed another aspect of your game. So now you can become more than just a shooter because at the end of the day, you do your role exceptionally well. Okay? So that's what I mean when it comes down to understanding your role. And the first thing you have to do is that you have to maximize the role that you have. So if you're a shooter, then maximize your ability to, to carry out that role. And then once you've done that, as you're doing that in the off season, you can expand that role. You can look to expand, you can look to get better at that role. And as you do that, that's going to allow you to be more successful. That's where you're going to have coaches and players saying, oh man, he got a lot better this offseason because you didn't necessarily have to do everything. You didn't necessarily reinvent the wheel. You just got better at the things you already were pretty good at. Okay. You maximized that and then you might have added one, two, maybe three things that you're now pretty good at. Okay? So you're again going back to the shooter. You were a pretty good shooter the year before, but you're mostly catch and shoot guy. Well, this next year you got better at that and you developed that ability to attack a closeout with a shot fake or a jab or just a quick rip through if possible. And you know, you worked your ability to pull up in the mid range so you can hit that pull up. But also, you know, you, you worked on your finishing a little bit so you can get to the rim and finish and you can get to the free throw line. So now you just, you seem like a more well rounded player, but you really only added one aspect to your game. I guess you could say two with the pull up. But you just, you added the ability to attack a closeout. Okay. And you got good at it. And that added on to the role that you already had. So, you know, that might add an extra, you know, depending how many shots you get, maybe that adds five points per game to your total in a year. Right. And that's. That in itself is a very big transformation for most players. Okay? So understand, it's not about being wheel, it's about understanding your role. Okay? If you didn't like your role. Why did you have that role? Well, it was because you weren't very good at something else that you maybe you want to be good at. Well, okay, then that's maybe something that you had to focus on. But you know, you have a role, so how can you come back next year, maximize that role and then what else can you do? The option to expand that role a little bit more. Okay, what's one or two or three things you can look to do to expand that role a little bit? When you take it step by step like that, that's where you're really going to be able to make sizable like noticeable translatable. I think that's the biggest key results that actually will translate to games. That's where you're going to make those strides in the offseason. So that's the first thing to understand is that what was your role be able to recap this past season and what can you do now to maximize their role next year and expand it a little bit as well. So that's point number one. So step number two to maximizing your offseason is building a plan, having a plan for what your offseason actually going to look like. So you know, this can be on a macro level, like a more holistic view, but also could just be in a micro like workout to workout. What, what do you, what does your day look like? So you know, generally kind of building on what we just talked about, you want to focus on, I generally say about three to four areas. That's where probably 80% of your focus is going to be in the off season. So you know, let's say that that focus. I'm going to keep using that shooter analogy. You know, you were a shooter, that was your role. So you know, you're again focusing on maximizing it. So shooting is obviously a big focus for you. Working, you know, just your form, continuing to build that. You're also working on your ability to hit game shots. Those shots that you know that you're gonna have to make, you know, in your team system, you continue to work on that. And so there's one thing right there. But again, maybe we talk, you know, we talked about it then you also work on attacking that closeout. So being able to use a, you know, having a good shot fate that you can sell, being being able to go catch quick into a jab step to shift that defender and then being able to get, you know, downhill into a little pull up or into maybe a quick separation move or into a Finish at the rim. So, you know, there's another thing attacking closer right there. Then maybe the other thing is that you work on that mid range pull up. Okay? That's, that's point number three. And maybe the fourth thing you work on is your finishing, okay? So 80% of your time you spend working on those four things. And that's just, you know, you know, again, that's just really a general thing. So maybe it is only three things maybe you just work on. You know, maybe you're a point guard and you work ball handling, shooting and finishing. Those are your three main areas that you focus on. Whether that be, you know, again, that can be as broad as, or as, as focused as you want it to be. Maybe that shooting is just, you know, off of ball screens or off the dribble. Or maybe it's, it's mostly that maybe you know, that the, the ball handling is, you know, mostly against, you know, just like a one on one situation with your teammate where you're just kind of working on handling pressure and all that sort of stuff. Then maybe that finishing is specifically working two foot finishing, okay? So you're working on being able to take contact, being able to get into, into shot fakes and step throughs and working your footwork with that. So again, this is just kind of spitballing kind of areas that you can focus on and they can be as specific or as focused again as you need that to be. So kind of think for yourself, okay? What, what are, you know, what was an area again? What, what do I need to be great at? Right? What is my role that I'm already pretty good at, But I got to make sure I'm great at this. I want to get minutes and if I want to have a longer leash to be able to do some, some more things next year, what do I need to be great at? So the coach says, you know what, I gotta play, I gotta play this, this guy, I gotta play this girl because, you know, she does a great job at that. So, you know, that's what's gonna get you on the floor. Okay, Maximize that. But then again those, you know, that other one, two, maybe three things that you want to add, you can spend time on that as well. So I would say about 80% should be kind of focused right there. And then, you know, 20% is going to be, you know, maybe you're working in, you know, in a team workout on, you know, using a pick and roll, right? Or using, you know, kind of, you know, working different sort of shots that Maybe you don't necessarily shoot all the time. Okay. Or, you know, maybe you work a ton of, you know, ball handling, footwork, right? So stuff that you might not be focusing on a ton, you got to build into that 20 right there. So again, generally, that's how I. How I do things. And you know, sometimes with my players, you know, really with. With all my players that I work with in person, it kind of actually vary a little bit with some of my players. I'll literally tell them, I'll say, okay, listen, this offseason we're going to. You got to get better at these three. We're going to work on these three things. Okay? That's going to be the majority of what we do. So, you know, maybe the one player said, okay, listen, we're going to work on your ability to make catch and shoot threes. That's going to be point number one with you. Point number two is going to be, you know, your ability to handle the ball. Just kind of, you know, your basic ability to say, hey, if the ball is in your hands, are you confident enough, are you competent enough with the ball in your hands that you're not a liability to your team. Right? Can you get the job done with the ball in your hands? Okay, and then the third thing we're going to work on is finishing, all right? Two foot finishing around the rim, your ability to be patient, be smart, have good footwork around the rim. Those are the three things we're going to work on this offseason for the most part. And again, I'll say that some of the players that I work with, with other players, it might be a little bit more of like a subtle thing where I'm like, okay, this is something we've got to emphasize. So with one player I work with, we've been working. One thing that I've been emphasizing, a lot is two foot finishing. Because, you know, she's. She's not that big or athletic, but she has a good feel for the game. So she has to understand, okay, when do I need to slow down around the rim? Okay, when do I need to do a pump fake right here to get that. That defender to raise up so I can just have an easy finish instead of trying to finish over them off one and probably, you know, maybe getting blocked or maybe just not having a clean look at it. Instead of just me slowing down, going off two feet, using a shot fake, using a step through a spin back, I have all these options off two feet. How can we get better at going to that at being comfortable going to that in game situations because of how that's going to pay off down the line. So we might have just points of the emphasis in our workouts. We're like, listen, you, an opportunity to finish off two feet right there, okay, I might have a player who's, you know, they're, they're kind of along those lines. Maybe, maybe I have a player who struggles with toughness, right? Just playing through contact. And so I can take times in workouts, especially in groups, where I can say, hey, there's an opportunity for you. You should have gone strong off two feet right there and finished that ball. Instead of fading away or instead of going up timid off one or whatever it may be, I might just look for different opportunities to point that out to, to that player specifically. So again, it kind of varies on just the player. But then some players, I'm like, listen, we're working on this, this and this. Like, when we're in this work, I don't care if we're in a group, we're going to hit this sort of stuff. We're hitting shooting for sure. Okay, and then what opportunities are you going to have to finish off two feet? Now you're looking forward as well. So my whole point with that is that you have to know what you've got to get better at. You've got to know what, what are, what are my points of emphasis for this offseason. Because then even if you have, like, team workouts all the time, right? Like, the team I coach, we work out. I mean, we work out almost every day. So if I say, you know, listen, I might come into those workouts and I know, like, okay, you know, what we're doing, the team's doing, right? It's a team workout. So I'm doing what everybody else is doing. But also I know that I got to work on this. So if I have an opportunity to work on my two for finishing, I'm going to do that. If I the opportunity to work on my ball handling a little bit extra, I'm going to do that. If I have the opportunity to work on my shooting a little bit more or my pull up a little bit more specifically, then I'm going to do that as well. Or if I have an opportunity to, you know, I got to, I got to get better at creating separation off the dribble, well, maybe I'll work on my step back. Okay. Or work on a punch drag or whatever it might be. Just, again, kind of spitballing ideas for you Guys, to go through having the idea, those points of emphasis in your mind, I think that's very, very important. And so then the question becomes like, okay, what should my schedule look like? Right? So do I have to be in the gym three days or three times a day, or do I have to be in gym every day of the week? Or you know, in general, this, this varies depending on what your schedule is. So again, like I was saying with the team I coach, you know, we have our team workouts every day. So you know, there's a workout for you a lot of times, you know, we, we usually lift, then we go to a workout. So that kind of two birds, one stone. But not every team does that. So you might also have to carve out sometimes in a day to go get, you know, your weight room work in or your whatever your off court athleticism, you know, kind of just development that whole side athletic development. Like whatever you do for that, you've obviously got a carve out time to make sure that you take care of that as well. So you know, that might mean that you've got to be in the gym, you know, maybe you get your skill workout five days a week and you've got to be in the, in the weight room four days a week. So figure out how that's going to work for you. But the other thing that I'll say is you want to make sure that you're, you know, you've got, you're getting in some time to just play, right, Your pickup runs. So you know, where is that factor in as well? Does that factor in with your skill workouts? Does that happen at the end of those workouts? Well, cool. Then again, two birds, one still in right there. But again, it's about just figuring out what works best for your schedule. Okay. So you know, if you want to go get in by yourself, you know, you have a couple workouts where you just go get shots up by yourself or you work on your ball handling, you're finishing by yourself. Cool, that's fine. Figure out where that's going to work in with your team workouts, your open gyms, that sort of stuff with, you know, your AAU practices or whatever it might be with your, your lifts and all that sort of stuff. It's really just, again, it's a balance thing, but in general, you want to do something pretty much every day. Now you should probably take a day off every week. That's again, generally what I'd recommend at least to do that. Not that a day off means you have to do nothing, right? You could certainly do some, some stretching, just do some mobility stuff, maybe some light shooting or like, there's certainly stuff you can do if you really want to as well. But again, in general, you just want to make sure that you, you sit down, you say, okay, listen, here's what I need to get done. So when am I gonna do it? And that's ultimately gonna be just kind of, you know, on you specifically. So I actually have a full 20, I think it's 27 minutes, the full 27 minute video on my YouTube channel breaking down, like how to, you know, schedule your workouts, how to build your workouts, literally step by step, how to do both those things. So I literally take you guys through the micro, like, okay, what drills do you do for this workout? If I want to work on this skill, what should I be doing for this workout? Little take that through step by step and I'll take you through just schedule wise. Okay, Monday, I'm doing this Tuesday, this Wednesday, like literally step by step, 27 minutes, a ton of detail in it. So go check that out. I'm gonna link that above for you guys on YouTube are listening right now, watching right now. And if you guys are on Spotify, Apple podcasts, just, you know, when you get around to it, go check out this video. And around, I don't know what, how, I don't know how far in we are to this video, but just it'll be, it'll be linked up above in the card. So just check that out again if you want to see, you know, kind of more detail on that. But also, you know, I have specific workouts on pretty much every, pretty much every area on my YouTube channel. So shooting, ball handling, finishing, and then even some more specific stuff like attack and close. Else I'm going to be dropping an off ball workout probably pretty soon, maybe actually probably the same week this podcast comes out. So that'll be up there soon. So I've got workouts on a lot of different things. So there's certainly all the player workouts too. Like there's workouts for that. Also my program, the perimeter score system, the elite shooter system, elite ball handling, where it's literally everything laid out for you to kind of build you to becoming, whether that's know, becoming a better shooter, becoming a better ball handler, to become an overall better scorer. So that also, you know, that's also linked below in the description on the YouTube video and the podcast Spotify. So you can check that out as well if you're Interested in that. But I have all this stuff there for you guys. So, again, go check out that video that I talked about where it goes through this step by step. That's really going to help you guys out for sure. The third thing that I want to cover when it comes to maximize your off season is just. It's a point I want to make. Don't work out in a vacuum. And this is an area that I think is really important for players to understand, and I'll explain what I mean by that. But, you know, when I was a player, this is something that I felt victim to, you know, all the time, really, probably until I was in my last couple years of high school. And. And basically what I do is I'd. You know, the season would end in February, and I basically just go hide out in the gym the whole off season. Right. I like. I didn't, like, really do anything with my teammates. You know, I. I was in that, like, the team workouts and stuff, but I wasn't really, like, trying to go out and play all that much. I was just, okay, I'm gonna get in the gym. I'm gonna go do my individual workouts every day. No one's gonna be in the gym, you know, more consistently than me. And. And definitely there wasn't anybody who was. But you have to understand that basketball is not just about the individual workout part of it, But I think this is where players get things wrong. It's like they think, okay, I've got to go out and I've got to, you know, I've got to go out and I'm going to make this huge transfer we talked about earlier. I got to make this huge transformation. So I'm going to get in the gym. I'm just going to work hard. I'm going to stay there the whole time. I. I'm just. And then I'll show up and, you know, I'm show up to the gym in November for tryouts or for practice, and boom, I'm just going to be so much better. Okay. But you have to understand that you have to learn not only those skills, but how to apply those skills in the context of an actual game. Okay? So if all you do is work out by yourself or, you know, you work out and you don't really play, then you're never going to learn how to apply that. You're not going to learn how to play. You're not going to have a feel for the game. We all know players who. And maybe it's you who you Know, in practice, they're great, right? You, you win all the shooting drills in practice. When you guys do go through your ball handling drills against air, you, you look really, really good. And you know, anybody who walked into the gym, watch a practice would be like, oh, man, he's probably one of the best players in the team. She's probably one of the best players in the team. But then, you know, we get to the game and all of a sudden like, oh, man, she doesn't really, like, do much. She doesn't really make much of an impact. She kind of looks lost out there. And a lot of times it's because that player probably doesn't spend enough time just playing, just learning how to play the game. Basketball. When do I attack, when do I shoot? You know, how do I move off the basketball? All those things that go into actually being a good basketball player that matter just as much, if not more than the actual, like, physical skill part of it. You know, that's what a lot of times players will lack. And, you know, I could probably argue that if we took two players with similar ability, right? And I said, okay, this player, player A, you're going to work out five days a week by yourself in the gym, hour and a half by yourself, working, whatever you want to work on, okay, I'm going to take player B and you're going to go play pickup, play competitive pickup five days a week, hour and a half every day. Okay? You're not going to do any skill work. You're just going to pick up five days a week with competitive pickup. So good pickup with guys who will push you, who are going to get you about at your level, maybe a little bit, a little bit above you. I would argue that when game time rolls around the next season, that player who just played the whole offseason competitively is going to be more impactful in games than that player who just worked out the whole time. That's, that's what I would argue. Now, obviously, I'm not saying you should just play. I'm saying there needs to be a balance. I'm not saying that workouts aren't important. They certainly are. Don't, don't, don't mishear what I'm saying. You need both of those things, but that's the point. You need both. You can't just have one of them. And a lot of times players. That was me. Players who are really, really dedicated, who really love getting better, they can fall victim into. I just got to go. Get better, get better, get better, get Better. And they don't actually go and learn how to play and understand, like, listen, games aren't perfect. So I've got to go out and I've got to put myself in imperfect situations with pickup, with just playing, you know, one on one, two on two. Like just get, you know, getting opportunities to lose sometimes, right? And to not always have things be perfect, to miss some shots, to have some bad days, okay? That's a crucial part of your development process as well. So don't work out in a vacuum. Meaning don't just spend all your time working out and never playing. Find time to play pickup, ideally at least twice a week, but hopefully more times than that, right? If you're able to work out with like a partner, you guys will play one on one every day. Do it right. Even if it's, you know, even if it's just, you know, one on one, three dribbles, like something real basic or, you know, one on one where you know, the defender starts on, on your hip with a live dribble. So you work on like just, you know, being able to drive downhill with that defender on you and finishing around the rim or creating separation, whatever it might be. Take some time to be able to do that and you're going to see those benefits that game, like the translation of results to just be so much higher when you combine the two, the skill work as well as the play. And so again, you want to do your best to be playing competitive basketball all off season, especially in the summer when you have time for it. And this can partially be aau, especially if you get a lot of AAU minutes or you guys play a lot at your AAU practice, which hopefully you guys play a lot. AU practices, kind of what it's for, but also could be at your school team workouts, maybe you guys play pickup or you guys play two on two or three on three a lot. But, you know, could it be with your friends, your teammates at the park or at the ymca, like just, you know, kind of casually. It doesn't have to be anything crazy. And even still, like any, any opportunity, you get to play one on one with your teammates or you two on two, whatever. Just like take that opportunity and learn how to play the game, have fun with it, right? It's just so much more fun to also be able to do that as well. Just play like that's why Ubasso is about having fun, right? That's why you do it. So that I think is an important part to not to not gloss over as well. Be at your school open gyms, your school workouts. Build that chemistry with your coaches, with your teammates. That's another big aspect of why you don't want to work on a vacuum. Don't just think you got to do everything by yourself. Other people can be a big help to you as well. So again, that's, that's just a big point I want to make. Guys don't work out in a vacuum. Play, play, play, play, play basketball as often as you can. Develop your feel for the game, your decision making ability, your body to make decisions quickly with pressure on you when you know there's somebody trying to stop you from succeeding, from putting the ball in the basket. And you know, again, I could probably argue that for a lot of players playing is just as if not more important than actual training is. And honestly I could argue that playing and training are kind of one in the same. They can be. But again, I think that this is an area that a lot of players kind of miss in the summer. If you can maximize your individual workouts, you know, your, your skill development with playing, that's where the results are going to come from and you're going to make those big strides. So again, point number one, guys, you want to recap your season. You know, what was your role like? Did you do well? Did you excel in your role? What can you do next year to maximize, then expand your role? Number two is build a plan. So I have, you know, three or four areas you're going to focus on and then list out. Okay, I'm going to do this, this day, this, that day, I'm going to get my lift in, then I'm going to get my pickup in, then I'm going to go play one on one after this workout. And then number three is don't work out in a vacuum. Okay? Okay. Play basketball, play basketball and then play some more basketball. Okay, so those three things, guys, you focus on that, that's going to really help you to maximize your offseason this year and come back and make those big strides next season that you want to make. So again, I appreciate you guys listening, you guys tuning in. Like I said before, beginning of the podcast, drop a review on Apple podcast. You are listening on there right now. Let me know what you think. YouTube, drop a, like subscribe and like I said guys, if you are interested in, you know, a clinic or a camp and getting out to work with me a little bit, drop a comment down below, just let me know. Again, just kind of gauge in interest seeing you know what's what what you guys are thinking out there. And that's all I've got for you guys. So, again, appreciate you guys for tuning in. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.