The Keys To Being A Consistently Elite Player

Foreign podcast. Thank you guys for tuning in. If you guys are an Apple podcast, would appreciate if you scroll down to the bottom of the page and leave a review for me, that'd be great. If you're on, if you're on YouTube, go ahead and leave a like and subscribe as well. Again, thank you guys for tuning in. Today we're going to talk about a question that I got this week and, and actually I didn't write down who it was from, but it's a question that I think is really going to be affected to you guys. And obviously, you know, once we get into kind of the, the actual season, it's going to be interesting to talk about this topic again. But, you know, us being offseason right now, I think there's a lot of stuff we're going to be able to take from this now. And then as we move forward towards the season, you'll be able to still implement these things as well. So, you know, essentially I want to talk today a little bit about consistency and how to be consistent, because this is a question that I do get asked a lot, and I think it's a very, very important part of being great. Okay. Because again, you know, something that I say in our 20 points per game blueprint, which comes with the perimeter score system, you know, where we're breaking down film on how to become a great scorer, how to be consistent, how to do all these things that are going to take you from, you know, being where you are now to becoming a great scorer. You know, one of the, one of the most massive things that we talk about is we talk about the importance of being consistent and how if you want to be a great scorer, the first key to that, the first step in that is being consistent. Because the thing is, and you know, for those of you who listen to the podcast a couple weeks ago where I talked about, you, you know, I talked about books that every Hooper needs to read. If you guys have not listened to that, make sure you go check out that podcast. But you know, one of those books that I talked about was Relentless by Tim Grover where, you know, he talks about the difference between a cooler, a closer, and a cleaner. You write the three, the three Cs and the three different levels, mentally that you're going to have of guys. And obviously the cooler is, you know, the lowest level. Then you'll have the closer, which is the second, and then you'll have the cleaner, which is the most rare, which is the third level right there. And so the biggest thing, you know, One of the biggest differences between those is that the cooler. The cooler might have. You know, the cooler might have one really good game, right? But then after that, they're probably not gonna. They're not gonna consistently have any more good games. Okay. Then you might have the. You might have the. The closer might have a great. A great season or a great stretch of a season where he's gonna consistently give results every single night. And then after that, you're gonna have the cleaner. And the cleaner is just. It's like clockwork. Their consistency that they have is just. You get it from them every single day, and there's no question about it. Okay? So if you want to become on that level, which is, you know, when you consider somebody great, it's when they get to that cleaner level, you have to go from being inconsistent to consistent, being able to give those results and produce every single night. So that's the importance of what we're going to talk about. And that's why I think that if you're able to take this and we're not just going to relate it to games, because obviously we want to be great in games, we want to be consistent in games, and that is an area that a lot of players do struggle with. But just as importantly, we need to figure out how we can be consistent when we talk about, you know, practices, your workouts, stuff that's going to prepare you for the games. Because there's. There's not. They. Those are directly related to each other. Right. If you don't. If you don't bring it during your practices or your workouts, how do you expect to bring it during games? Okay. Something we have to talk about. If you want to become great at something, you want to be a great player, the first step to it is becoming a more consistent player. Okay? And if we recognize that consistency is what leads to greatness, then instead of our focus being on how do I become great, our focus needs to shift to how do we become consistent? Okay? How do we become consistently great at something? So this question came from Jake, and he asked me, hey, I've been listening to a lot of your podcasts and trying out your workouts, but during games and sometimes even in practices, I'm really inconsistent. Sometimes I play decently, but other times I don't play anywhere as well. Basically, my problem is consistency. I train hard and push myself and do that consistently, but when it actually comes to pickup games, even though I can keep up with everything that's going on, I still fail to make easy shots and I find that basketball doesn't feel natural anymore. Big fan of the work. Keep it up. Well, Jake, I appreciate the question. And you know, like I just said, that's something that a lot of players struggle with, that I've for sure struggle with, you know, growing up. And you know, the, the thing to recognize off the bat is that consistency is. It's a habit. Okay? So it's not just you can't be consistent and only do something one time. Right? Consistency is something you develop over time. Okay? So you're not going to go from not being consistent at all to being consistent every time. It's going to take developing that habit. Okay? So we need to figure out what are the steps that we have to take to get. To start developing that habit so we can make consistency a natural thing for us, so that we show up when we need to show up, so that we're ready to go. Every single time that we play, every single time that we practice, every time we show up to the court, we're ready to go because we develop that habit of being consistent. Okay? So you have to understand that in order to get there, to get to that point, we need to look at our habits right now and determine if that if our habits are setting us up to be consistent or are they setting us up to be inconsistent. Okay. And a lot of times for players who struggle with consistency, if you look at their habits, they aren't set up in a way that is going to breed consistency. Usually they're set up in a way that's going to breed inconsistency. Whether their warm up is not consistent, their approach in general is not consistent. We're going to get into some specifics here real quick, but we can go through a few right now. Number one, let's talk about your time management. You know, one of the biggest factors in your consistency is your approach to practices and games and workouts. Anytime that you're on the floor and you need to produce, your approach is going to be a massive part of that. Right? It's going to be harder for you to be physically and mentally prepared for something. If every day you're showing up late to your practices or showing up late to your games. Okay. Or, you know, for example, or showing a place to your pregame. I should say, if you guys are supposed to be there an hour before and you get there 45 minutes before, all of a sudden you've got a rush to get yourself prepared to go. Okay? So that's something to consider as well. If you're Showing up late or even if you're, if you just don't give yourself enough time to go early, okay, I would say you're going to want to try and be early to everything so you can have enough time to get yourself prepared mentally, enough time to get yourself prepared physically, right? So that when you get to the actual start of the time, you're good to go. Like you're ready to go. You've gone through your routine and all that. And you know something that I talk about too in the mental toughness masterclass, which again is another program that comes with the perimeter score system, I talk about, I actually lay out for those guys in there, like the perfect pre game routine for your. For like mentally, okay. And you know, I won't go through the whole thing now. It's kind of in depth. But the one thing I'll say that you can take from that is we talk about visualization being a massive part of that, okay? So we talk about, you know, on your way to a game, maybe it's on the bus ride there or maybe just before you show up to wherever you're playing at. You know, we take some time, we break down different situations. We say, okay, I want you to take five situations in your past where you succeeded, right? Where maybe you had, you hit a nice shot, you had a great move, maybe you had a great game, or you hit a bunch of threes, right? And you're going to replay those five situations in your mind for about two, three, maybe four minutes. And then after you do those things, you're going to move on to five future situations. So think about whatever game, your game or your practice, whatever you're about to do. Think about the results you want to see in that game. Think five situations. You want to see how maybe you, you hit a shot in the corner, okay? Or maybe you have a great take off a crossover for a layup, okay? Or maybe you envision yourself handling pressure really well coming up the court, okay? You run through those situations in your mind as well for, you know, we'll say two minutes, okay? And just doing that is going to get you into a, into a mindset of being successful. Now that does not mean that you're going to necessarily do those things. It doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to go out there and do everything perfectly. All that it's doing is priming your mind to be in that sort of state, okay, that you're ready for good things to happen to yourself. You're prepared to go out and make plays, as opposed to just going in there with nothing on your mind or with your focus being on something that's non basketball related or you're distracted, all these things, you now can put your focus onto basketball. And that's something that we talk about in the mental toughness masterclass. And we go through a whole entire breakdown of your pregame routine and how to actually develop it to be successful and to be consistent approaching those games. But visualization is a massive part of that. And just another thing, if you guys are going to do that, something that I always tell those guys is that you want to make sure with your visualization that you actually are imagining yourself in your shoes. Like how does the ball feel in your hands? Right? So you know when you're closing your eyes, visualizing it, it's first person, like you're doing it again, okay? You can feel the ball in your hands, you can hear the crowd, you can feel your shoes on your feet, right? You're going through those situations that you've been in and then the ones you want to see happen right now. And once you guys start to do that, you're going to find yourself more mentally locked into things as opposed to you kind of going out there and being up and down because you have nothing consistent that you stick to every time before. Okay? And also going along with that pre game stuff. Not only that, but you can also add in, you know, maybe you have a warmup you like to go through, you know, just to get your body, you know, nice and relaxed and ready to go, nice and warmed up. Okay? If you give yourself the extra time to do that now, sudden you don't have to clash with your team getting warmed up. Your coach is in the locker room trying to talk to you. All these things, you give yourself some extra time. Now you have the time to go through your visualization, go through your warm up. Maybe you get some extra shots up before, and then all of a sudden, like you have that sort of thing, okay? So that's something you guys need to consider when we talk about, you know, your time, okay? Do you show up early to things so that you can get yourself ready to go before, you know, beforehand? Or are you rushing yourself? Are you not allowing yourself to have the time and the freedom to get things done, okay? You also have to consider that there's going to be times throughout the year, throughout whatever the season might be, might be, through the school, season, through aau, whatever, where you're gonna, you're gonna be banged up, maybe, you know, you got Kneed in the, in the side of the leg, which is always the worst the day before. So, you know, your leg hurts. You know, maybe you, maybe you rolled an ankle the day before, maybe something happened or maybe you fell or something where you're not gonna be feeling 100%. And so if you show up late to your practice or your game, or you show up late to your workout, whatever, you're not gonna have to deal with that as well. So you're not gonna be 100% physically and you won't be at 100% mentally because you didn't give yourself time to get going. That's where it becomes super important that you show up early to things so you can get yourself warmed up, get your body as prepared to go as you can, okay? Now all of a sudden you've done all that you can to make sure you're prepared. Okay? You compare yourself. You know, you have two players who are equally as talented. Both of them, you know, get banged up the day before. One of them shows up early to get themselves warmed up, get themselves ready to go. Maybe they get themselves to 90%, right? But that player who also had the same exact, you know, the same exact little injury, comes back the next day, doesn't go through that whole warm up and get themselves ready to go. Maybe they're only at 80%. Okay? So now all of a sudden you're going to see over a long period of time, the consistency you're going to see from those guys is going to be two different levels. Okay? So showing up early to things is just a habit you should get yourself into as a player. It's really going to help you out long term in terms of being, being ready, being, being consistent physically and mentally as well. So those, you know, those are things that really separate people. You also, you know, a lot of you guys are going to have access to maybe an athletic trainer or something like that. Like, are you putting in the time to go see the athletic trainer before your games if you need to? Right. Are you willing to make that sacrifice to say, you know, I'm gonna, we don't have to be at the game till 6, I'm gonna get here at 5:15 so I can go see the athletic trainer and you know, go get some help a little bit. So I'm ready to go for the game today. Okay? You have to ask yourself, are you putting yourself in the best position to be consistent or are you not doing, Are you saying, you know what, I don't feel great, I probably should go see the trainer. But I'm gonna show up at 6 anyway. Who cares? Well, if that's your mindset, you're not going to be consistent, okay? At least not the level you could be. Maybe you'll be consistently average, but if you want to be consistently great, you have to take those extra steps that you know you should be taking. Okay? And that's, that's again, those little things, which really aren't that little in the grand scheme of things. Those are very, very important. Like I said, that's gonna. You. You. The way you play can be completely different just based on how prepared you are before physically and mentally. Okay? So those things will separate players, though, and that's how you'll find guys who can be consistent and guys who won't be. And so time is just a massive part of being insistent the way that you approach things. The other thing is, how do you approach your practices in general? Okay, Are you getting through it or are you getting better from it? Right. The thing that a lot of players will, the common sentiment, and everybody's guilty of this at times is like, oh man, you got practice. And basically you're just kind of drudging through practice. You're just trying to get through practice. You're like, you know what? Today's gonna be terrible. We're to run a lot. Got a two and a half hour practice today. We had a game yesterday, we got a game tomorrow. I don't feel like playing. Like all those things are gonna happen to you at times. Okay? But and honest, like, no one's perfect. There's gonna be days where you don't feel like going to practice, where you don't feel like putting an effort at practice. It's just gonna be days like that, okay? But you have to be able to evaluate yourself and say, you know what? This is where I develop my consistency. The days that I don't feel like doing it, the days that I don't feel like. And this could be for going to practice, it could be for working out. This could be for going to get treatment before a game. You might not feel like doing it, but you have to ask yourself, how badly do you want to be consistent at something? Okay? Because consistency, that's the thing. If you're only consistent when things are going well, you're not consistent, okay? You have to be consistent when things are going poorly as well. And if you tell yourself that every time you don't feel good about something, you don't have to do it, then it's gonna be impossible to Develop that sort of consistency for yourself. Okay? So you develop that habit like I talked about earlier habits, you develop that through, oh man, got to practice today. Don't feel like trying to get better from it. Okay? You need to switch your mindset from, I just try and get through practice every day. I try and do what coach tells me to do to changing it to, I'm just gonna try and get better every single day at practice. There's gonna be something that I can do today that's gonna make me a better player. Okay. I'm gonna make sure I take advantage of that. As soon as you switch your mindset from that to that, it's gonna be completely different. The results you see and the effort that you actually give in those practices, okay, that's a telltale sign of a consistent team and consistent players as well. If you walk into a practice and you walk into, you know, the first couple days of practice, right, In October and November, you look at that team, you know how different is practices when you get to January, right? Like, how different is the energy, how different is practice? Probably look differently, you know, because two different parts of the season, right? But the energy that your players have, the energy that, that you guys who are supposed to be leaders like that, they have, how is that different from those two? Just because you've been going for a while, you're starting to get a little burnt out in January. Okay. Are you able to keep up that same sort of intensity? And if you only go 100% on the days that you feel like it, that pattern is going to show up in games as well. So if you struggle being consistent in games, look at your practice habits. And you know, I also, again, so going back to the podcast I was talking about earlier in the book Toughness by Jay Billis, he talked about, and I mentioned the story in that podcast as well. You know, there was a game his freshman year, one of the first games of the season where, you know, they were, they were going to be playing a team, wasn't going to be nationally televised. It was some mid major school that wasn't very good. And obviously Duke was one of the best teams in the country. And so, you know, they're on the locker room, you know, kind of doing whatever, not really feeling too stressed about what was going to happen. And you know, Coach K comes in and he says to the guys, like, you know, guys, this is the most important game we are going to play this season. And everyone on the team was like, well coach, like, we got to play Virginia who's ranked number one. We got to play, you know, we got to play Louisville, who just won a title, or I believe it's Louisville. And we got all these big time ACC match. We're going to play North Carolina. Like we have all these big time ACC games. Like, how is this against this, you know, pretty mediocre mid major team. Why is this the most important game of the season? And you know, Coach K's response was everything we do is the most important game. Every game we play is the most important game we're going to play the whole year. Because if we slip up, you know, it reflects poorly on us. We can't afford to lose a game, right? We want, if we, if our goal is to be a championship level team, we have to bring that championship level effort every single time. Because here's the thing, you know, we might go out there and it's just some, you know, another game to us, to them. This is their, this is their NBA finals. This is their national championship game, okay? This is, this is the biggest game that a lot of these guys are ever going to play, right? So they're coming up looking to get us. Are we bringing our championship ever this game? Are we developing the habit of bringing a championship level intensity, championship level effort to every single game that we play? Okay? That's, that's the difference between teams that win championships and team that don't. Because teams that don't feel like they can just turn it on when they need to. And the issue with that is that there's going to be times where again, if something's not going right, if you don't feel like, oh, we had to bring it today. And then all of a sudden a team, you know, you find yourself going as a team that probably shouldn't beat you, that is all of a sudden competing with you. You can't just flip that switch if you're not used to it, if you're not used to consistently bringing that sort of effort, which again is why you see all of these, you'll see upsets in every college sport, right? College football, college basketball, you'll see games where, you know, top 25 teams lose to unranked teams, lose to major teams because they didn't bring it that day. And that team that was, you know, being overlooked, they brought it, they were ready to go that day. And that's an incredibly important mindset to develop that Coach K, one of those guys to have. We have to bring that championship level effort, that maximum effort to everything that we do every game Every practice is just as important, okay? It's the most important thing we're ever going to do because that's what we're doing right now. It's the same way with your practices. It's the same exact way. You need to approach every practice and every workout as if it's the most important one ever. And instead of trying to get through practice, you know, you need to try and get better from it, take something from it. Every practice you go through, every workout you go through, is the most important thing that you're going to do, okay? And once you develop that mindset and that translates to your effort, your consistency in those workouts, in practices is going to start translating over to your games as well. You're going to be able to bring your best effort every single time. And if you don't do that, if you pick and choose when to bring that effort, you're going to go against a team and a player who doesn't do that. You're going to go against a guy who brings it every single time they step on the floor, no matter who they're playing, where they're playing. And you're going to get beat eventually, okay? You're going to get beat. So if you want to win, if you want to have that sort of effort, make sure that that is the mindset that you approach things with. And I think maybe the biggest area that that consistency has to deal with, maybe the biggest area, because, you know, a lot of players, there are players who, the first two points I just made, they do that, they show up early, they care, they put in the effort they don't like, they're always looking to win, no matter who they're playing, they give effort every practice. There are guys who do that and they still aren't consistent with it, okay? So I think maybe the biggest area in this is how do you respond to adversity, okay? Because in basketball, in any sport, anything in life, there's going to be adversity that you're going to face, okay? And I've talked about it before, but how you handle adversity might be the biggest factor to consider when it comes to your consistency. And another thing I talk about in the Mental Masterclass is your ability to handle adversity is going to determine how good you can be, how great you can be at something. If you can't handle adversity, you. You will not be great. You can't be consistent, therefore, you can't be great at something. I know so many players personally who are super Talented, yet completely sabotage themselves because they can't handle when things don't go their way. They can't handle when things go wrong, when things don't go as planned. If things are not perfect for them, like, they can't handle it, okay? And no matter how talented you are, if you can't handle things on going your way, then you can't be consistent at something, okay? And it's gonna be very, very frustrating for not only you, but your team as well, because you're gonna be letting them down by you not being able to overcome things that don't go your way. You know, before we even get going into how you can take this and change it, hopefully, if this is something you struggle with, let's talk about something real quick. Steph Curry. Steph Curry is the greatest shooter to ever touch a basketball. And it's not a discussion. He's the best to ever do it, okay? And Steph Curry, you know, on a. On a great year, is going to shoot 45% from 3. 45% from 3, which is incredible. That's an incredible percentage to shoot. But if you look at that percentage, right, 45%, that means you're still missing over half of your threes. Steph Curry, the best to ever do it. The best. Like, think about that. Of the billions of people who have ever lived, Steph Curry is the best who ever shoot a basketball. And he still makes less than half of his shots in games on a great year, okay? That, like, you need to put that into perspective. So. So if that's. If that's what he does, the best ever do it. The greatest ever do it. If that's how he shoots, why do you expect to never miss shots, right? How is that. How does that make any sense? How is that fair to Steph Curry, right? You're supposed to shoot 100%, but he only shoots 45%. That's not. That's not how it works, okay? You have to understand, I'm not saying you should go out there and expect to miss every shot, but you should expect that you're going to miss shots from time to time. You might miss multiple shots in a row. That's. That's how basketball works, okay? The best shooters do that. Steph Curry has had games where he's shot terrible, where he shot 15% from three. Plenty of games where he's missed multiple threes. And he said plenty of games where he shot 75% from three. Okay? It all balances out. We're going to talk about that a lot moving forward, but you need to keep yourself in check. Keeping yourself in check is key mentally, okay? When you start to miss shots, when things start to. To not go your way, okay? Keeping yourself grounded, keeping yourself thinking the right thoughts, preventing yourself from. From listening to lies that you're gonna. You're gonna tell yourself, okay? That's. That's the massive key right here. You know, if missing a couple of shots or, you know, some, you know, something going wrong, if that starts to make you doubt yourself, that's. That's a problem for you. That's a massive problem. If you miss three, if you're a good shooter, right, and you miss three shots in a row and you decide at that point, like, I can't shoot anymore, like, I guess I gotta be done shooting because I can't make anything, then that's a massive problem for yourself, a massive confidence problem. And you won't be consistent if that's your approach to things. If you're a good shooter and your coaches say, hey, you're a good shooter, you're allowed to shoot the ball. Your teammates know you can shoot the ball. You miss a couple shots so you decide to be done shooting the ball, that's a problem, okay? And confidence is massive when it comes to consistent production and, and confidence, you know, that's something that players struggle with too. Confidence is really gained through two things. Two things, in my opinion, is gained through repeated success. So, you know, you'll be confident in yourself. If you've made a ton of shots in your life, if you spend a lot of time shooting a basketball, you see the ball go in a lot, you're going to be pretty confident in your ability to hit shots because you've done it so many times, okay? You'll be confident if you're used to going out and scoring 20 every games, right? If you start off the season and your first eight games you score 25 points, you'll be pretty confident going into that ninth game that you can do it again because you've done it right? So doing things, consistent success and wins, repeated success and wins, that's going to give you confidence in something, okay? You know, if you get a lot of stops on defense, you're going to be confident in your ability to be a defender. If you handle pressure well, you're going to be confident going forward in your ability to handle ball pressure, okay? Doing things gives you confidence, which is why we, obviously we work out, right? We work out to get better at our skills, but we also work out so that we can Be confident when the game comes that we can go and produce, okay? That's why we play pickup basketball. So we have to play against defense now. So we're confident in our abilities once we get to the game where there's live defenders there. We've been here, we've played against defense before. We know how to do what we do when there's defense on the floor, okay? That's something that we have to think about and that's a reason that we have to, that we do those things. Okay? And the thing is with that, a lot of players do that. Most of you guys listening probably do that now again, especially if you're younger, you probably haven't put in enough time, right? Shooting is a skill that compounds over years and years of work, okay? You know, that's why it's hard. You know, you don't see a lot of players in middle school who are great shooters because they just haven't spent enough time working on their shot, okay? And players, you know, will get better and better at shooting as they continue to go along, okay? Because it's just muscle memory adds up, right? But there are a lot of players who have put in a ton of time who are good, maybe even great shooters or great at some sort of skill yet they aren't confident enough to withstand any sort of adversity, okay? And usually if that's the case, if the case, they've put in the work, they're good at something, but they still can't overcome adversity. They don't have the confidence to do it. Usually that's, that's a self talk problem. Okay? You have to ask yourself, when you miss a shot, when you miss multiple shots, what do you say to yourself? Like, what is your reaction to yourself? If, if your reaction is to say, oh man, I can't shoot, or oh man, I'm off today, or oh man, like I'm not good or something like that. There, there goes, that's, that's a lack of confidence and there goes your ability to be consistent with something. Because if you're, you're at that point, you are taking yourself out of the game. You're taking yourself out of the game. So your self thought needs to change from that into, you know, my next one's going in. That's got to always be your thought and that's a conscious shift you have to make. You might, you're going to have to start thinking to yourself, you know, when do I start? You have to catch yourself talking negatively to yourself. You miss A couple shots and you catch yourself saying, oh, I can't shoot today. No, you got to, you have to stop right there and say, you know what? No, the next one's going in. I've shot too many shots in my life to, to, to miss my next one. Like the next one has to go in because I've seen it go in so many times. I know I can shoot the basketball. Next one's going to go in. That has to, that has to be what your self talk is, okay? Because objectively it sucks to miss shots, okay? But the only thing we can control going forward is, is, is, you know, our next play, our next shot. We don't control what we missed. We have to try and make an effect, an impact on the game going forward. And, and we need to make sure we put ourselves in the right, the right mindset to do that. And you won't do that if you're getting really being really hard on yourself for missing shots. You got to be just ready to go and you got to hit the next one. So, you know, like I said, Steph Curry misses over half his threes and he's the best ever. You know, a great shooter in the NBA is going to shoot 40% from three. So they're going to make four out of 10 threes. So think about that way, you know, if you go 4, you shoot 4 for 10 from 3. That, that kind of, you know, off the bat, that, that might be like, man, I feel like I shoot better. Like if I go to the gym right now and I shoot 10 wide open threes and I make four of them, I'm gonna be pretty upset with myself and be like, I feel like I'm wide open from three, Like I should be hitting more than four of these, okay? But if you consider that in a game that's like that, you're gonna like, you have a spot on an NBA team if you can consistently hit 40%. Okay? Obviously there's different factors to consider in games. That's neither here nor there. Right now I'm, I'm objectively talking about makes and misses right now. 40% is, is the marker, okay? So put that into perspective. A few missed shots in a row is not the end of the world at all, okay? Because at the end of the day, it's all going to balance out and we're going to talk about the law of averages right now. So Klay Thompson, right, has a game against the Bulls last year, last season, where he set the NBA record for most threes in a game when he hit 14, which actually he broke Steph Curry's record 14 threes in a game. He shot 14 for 24, which is 58%. Okay. Obviously one of the best shooting performance, probably the best shooting performance ever. I mean, from three he made the most, so I guess he would be. 58% as well. Is incredible from three, and that's pretty great. But you have to consider the first month of that season, he shot 31% from three. Okay, I don't know if you guys remember this, but this is when Clay was going through that stretch where he just could not make anything. Like he was shooting really, really, really bad to start the season off that year, like, really bad. And he was getting questions every day from reporters. Klay, what's wrong with your shot? Klay, what's up with this, with that, all that different thing? Klay Thompson is going to go down most likely as the second best to ever do it shooting a basketball and behind his own teammate. By the time things are all are said and done, you know, and he retires, he'll probably be the second best shooter ever. And you, like, the guy who was the second best to ever do it, potentially was. Was shooting 31%. 31%. And you have. So. So that's where I stop with the law of average. Because you're going to have a guy come out of the start of season off shooting awful from three, awful from three. And next thing you know, all of a sudden, boom. Sets an NBA record for most threes in a game, right? He's going to go from that to the complete polar opposite. Okay? And that illustrates the law of averages, right? Everything is going to balance out. Everything is going to balance out. It always does. Okay, so he's going to shoot 31%, and that was pretty bad. You know, I believe. I believe he had a stretch between, like, end of November, beginning December, that was okay. And then December again was a terrible month. Shot like 33%. And then, boom, January comes, he was at like 36, February was like 45, March was 46, April 45. And by the time the regular season is over, he's shooting 40% for the year. So he's in that. He shot like 40.2% from 3 by the end of last year. But he started off the year shooting 31%, right? So you're like, man, like, this guy's supposed to be the greatest of all time, shooting 31%. Like, but no, it all balances out because next thing you know, the very next month, he might shoot 46%. Okay? And it's going to balance right back out. So, you know, during November of that year, actually Clay was asked about that. He was asked by a reporter during a press conference. You know, they, they asked him, they're like, you know, Clay, like, what's up with the, with the, with the shop right now? Like, are you, are you frustrated? Are you nervous? Like, like what, like what needs to change? And I'm going to put his response right here for you guys to listen to.

I feel great, man. You don't set NBA records being frustrated. So I'm not going to go over here and dwell on missing a couple shots, missing a game time shot this early in the season. I'm just going to keep shooting and they'll fall on a high cliff. I guarantee that.

It's going to be the key to.

Snapping out of this rut right now because the team's win tomorrow, it's pretty simple.

So just listening to his response, like, that's the pinnacle of confidence. You know, he's saying, like, look, man, like, you know, I, I set NBA records. Like, you don't do that by, you know, being, you know, getting frustrated or, or feeling like, you know, you know, you can't shoot anymore. Which essentially what, what he's saying, he's saying, you know, like, I'm not gonna respond by saying, like, oh man, like, what am I supposed to do? Like, I'm not gonna freak out about it. Like, I know what I can do, I know what I've been able to do, and I know that I'm going to get back to that level again. Okay? It's, it's, it's the pinnacle of confidence. You know what you've done, you have the confidence, you've put those reps in. And your talk to yourself is not like, man, I don't know what's wrong with me. None of these things. If you listen to other interviews, he does. He had another interview last year, the same season, in December, where he talked about his. They asked him again because he was going through a slump in December, and they said, you know, Clay, like, what's up with your slump? And he was like, no, it's not a slump. Like, it's not like, it's not a slump. And they're like, well, you're not shooting very well. He's like, well, it's not a slump. Like, he just had completely refused to even acknowledge that because he knows, like, he's like, yeah, I'm just going to go to the next game and I'm doing the same exact thing. I'm just going to go shoot basketball and eventually it's going to go in and it did for him. That's, that's literally the confidence he has in himself, okay? And his ability to shoot the basketball. And the two things you can take from that is what? One, you need to expect that you're going to go through slumps sometimes. You're going to go through times that you just don't make shots, and that's okay because the best players to ever do it also struggle with that same exact thing. So don't get too hard on yourself when you start to miss, you go through slumps or you don't shoot very well, it's going to happen. But like I said, law of averages, it all balances out eventually. Go through a time where you're going to start hitting shots, okay, maybe at a, at a disproportionate rate. You might hit some shots. You, you probably, you know, you might hit, might. You might have a game where, you know, maybe the first five games of the year, you, you know, you shoot 20%. The next five games, maybe you shoot 60%. All of a sudden you're at four, you're at 40, right? So that, that, that's how, that's how that works out. And, and two, like, you know, if you've put the reps in right there, that's, that's the caveat here. If you've put the reps in, Klay Thompson obviously put the reps in. Now the. None of you guys listening have put in as many reps as Klay Thompson. None of you are probably even close to him. But that doesn't mean you can't be a great shooter as well, okay? If you've put the reps in and you know what you can do with the basketball, it's going to balance out for you, right? Clay started the season off shooting, awful shooting terrible. And from a long time, almost the first two months of the year, he had some games mixed in that were good. But overall, his, his percentage going into, into 2019, into January was not good. It was way less than 40%. It was probably, probably shooting 33, 34% going into, into, into, you know, January, which, you know, isn't, isn't atrocious. But for the guy who's, you know, the splash brother that it is, it's bad. That's, that's not good at all. Okay? Ends the year 40%. All balances out at the end. And it's going to Start clicking at some point. Okay? So at the end of the day, you cannot get discouraged by going through different sort of slumps, okay? Because it's going to happen, but things are going to balance out if you stick with it. If you put the reps in, you need to be confident that that's going to happen. And like I mentioned before, it starts with your self talk. What do you say to yourself when you have, when you miss a shot or when you have a bad game? If you have a bad game where you miss, you go over eight from three. Are you telling yourself that you can't shoot? Are you saying, man, I can't shoot anymore. Like this is like what am I supposed to do? Or is your thoughts yourself? Like, you know what, I went 0 for 8. That means eventually I'm going to have to go 8 for 8, right? Because it's all going to balance out, right? So I know that my next shot probably is going to go in. Now is that, is that your, is that your, your reaction to yourself? Right? Is that what you tell yourself at the game? Say, you know what, didn't shoot well today, but next one's going to go in. I'm confident what I can do. I put the reps in, I put the time in. I'm going to go do it. Okay? The players who are consistent are the ones who talk themselves like that. They have a short memory. They say, you know what, whatever, doesn't matter what happened there, I'm going to put my next one in. I'm confident in my ability to do it. I'm going to get it done. Okay? Every time you miss a shot, your belief needs to be the next one is going to go in. Every time you have a bad game, your thought needs to be the next one is going to be a great game. Okay? And that's, that's how you handle adversity. A lot of the issues you'll see with guys going into stretches where they just play terribly is because they have one bad game and they just, they can't get out of that mindset of thinking like, man, I'm terrible. Like, they just get so down on themselves, even though they shouldn't. From outsiders perspective, they might be one of the better players on the team, but because they, they are talking down on themselves, they don't believe in themselves anymore. They're going to continue to play poorly. Okay, if that's you, you need to get it together. Say, you know what? Nope. Next one's gonna be good. I'm gonna go get some Shots up. Today I'm gonna start and I'm gonna feel good about my shot going forward. Okay, that's, that's gonna be what it is. So hopefully that answers your guys questions. Talking about consistency again, how do you manage your time, right? Are you getting to things early? Are you preparing yourself? Are you giving yourself time to prepare for your games, for your practices, for your workouts? That's super important when it comes to being at your highest level every single time that you step on the floor. And number two, making sure that you know your approach, how you know, do you approach things, trying to get through it or are you trying to get better from it? Is every single practice, every single workout, every single game, is that the most important thing you're going to ever do? Is that the sort of intensity that you approach things with? Okay, and number three, how do you handle adversity? How do you handle missing a shot? How do you handle having a bad game? How do you handle turning the ball over? Okay, you're. Is your mindset that you know, you're not confident in your ability to do that thing or do you tell yourself that the next play is going to be a good play, the next game is going to be a good game from you? Do you have that innate that, that underlying confidence that everything is going to be all right because everything balances out okay? Do you understand that? Right. Those three things, if you take those things and you really embody them, are going to allow you to be a more consistent player. Okay? Now obviously that all goes along with the work. So this, this assumes you're putting in the work as well. So make sure you guys are doing that. Speaking of the work, you know, as of right now, I, I am, I'm working hard on the, on the ball handling program. Elite ball handling. It will be out within the next couple weeks. So still trying to get all this stuff put together going to be really, really helpful. For a lot of you guys who struggle with your handles, it's really going to build a whole bunch of things. It's going to build your ability to control the bat. Obviously everything starts with ball control, right? So you got to be able to control the basketball, have the ball on a string. Okay? That's probably the biggest point we're going to cover because everything builds off that. Once you can control the basketball, there's, you can do everything else with it. Okay? It's just about practicing it. But once you have control of the ball, the whole entire game is open for you. Okay? So we're going to. That's going to be a major key. Being able to change pace is going to be massive for us. Being able to change height and those two things combined, really, and also changing with as well. So being able to change just the way you're jumping the basketball, it's going to make you, you know, that that's where you take guys who might not be fast, might not be that quick, but they're able to change pace, change height really well with the basketball, and all of a sudden it seems like they're a lot quicker than they are. Okay. So that's going to help you to just be a way bigger threat offensively if you're able to control the ball and you're able to change your pace really well. I mean, you're going to be a guy who's going to score a lot of points and really be, you know, facilitate for your teammates really, really well. Just make good basketball plays in general. So, really excited to get this program to you guys. It's really what I've been working on for the past. I mean, man, since, like, April. Since April, you know, and all of you guys who've been a part of my live bone handling workouts, you know, that was kind of where it started for me in terms of really, you know, you know, hunkering down and developing, like, man, like, how can I first of all develop my own handles to a new level? And like I was saying a couple weeks ago on my Instagram post where I talked about how, you know, I've been working a lot on my ball handling over the past few months, and at this point in my life, it's the best it's ever been, like, by far. Right. And so I'm ready to share that with you guys as well. I think it's really going to be a game changer for so many of you guys, because that's one of the biggest questions I get is like, you know, coach, how do I. How do I improve my ball handling? Like, coach, like, I struggle to handle ball against pressure, all these things, and I want to be able to help you guys out because, you know, there's a lot of. There's a lot of, you know, if you look for ball handling stuff out there, there's a lot of different people telling you different things about what you should do, what you shouldn't do, all these things. And that was one of the things I struggled with growing up, is like, you know, am I supposed to do this drill or this drill or that drill or this workout or that workout. And, you know, a lot of it, like, was cool, but it didn't get me the results that I really wanted to see, which is like, you know, I just want to be able to get into games and handle the ball at a high level. Like, how do I, how do I do that? How do I feel confident with the ball in my hands? And that's really what this program is going to develop, is just your confidence with the ball. Your confidence to be able to make any sort of play you need to with the ball in your hands and be a guy that your coach can trust to have the ball in his hands. Okay. Because end of the day, that's what you need. Right? So super excited to get this to you guys. Working hard on it now, so be prepared, be on the lookout for that as well. Get you guys prime and ready to go for the season. So I'm excited for that. You know, like I just mentioned, you know, Instagram, if you have any questions for me, like, today's whole podcast was a question I got on Instagram. So if you have a question for me, give me a follow at Vision Driven Basketball, send me a dm. Even if you don't have a question for me, just give me a follow on Instagram. So you see what I'm posting and you know that that'll, that that's the best way to reach me as well. If you have a question for me, you just want to mention something to me. You know, I got a lot of comments on YouTube, so I don't, I don't always, I don't always get a chance to respond to every single one of them. So make sure, make sure you send me a dm. I'm always checking those. And you know, again, I appreciate you guys all for tuning in. If you're Apple podcast, go ahead and go down to the bottom page and leave a review. YouTube, go ahead and like and subscribe if you're new. Appreciate you guys. Talk to you later. Peace.