The Process of True Player Development and Gaining The "Quicksand Mindset" with Quicksand Hoops

Foreign. Welcome to the Visionary Basketball Training Podcast. Appreciate you guys for tuning in today. I believe this episode 34, of course, Apple Podcast, Spotify shout out to you guys listening right now and obviously YouTube shout out to you guys. Make sure you guys drop a, like, subscribe as well if you're new. Very special episode today. I have my guy, Quicksand Hoops Gabe with me today and I'm really excited to get to talk to him today because there's a lot of stuff we're going to dive into, I think is going to help you guys. A lot of topics that I get asked very, very frequently that I feel like he's going to have a good, a great approach to it as well. And like I always say when I have somebody on, oh, this is only episode two of me having somebody on. I like having somebody just to kind of like be able to bounce ideas back and forth. You know, a lot of times, like if I'm talking just myself, I like doing that. But it's also nice to have just the dynamic of another person in here, someone else who knows hoops as well. So really awesome to have that. So, Gabe, I'll let you give like a little intro of what you do. Of course, plug your stuff and I'll have the links up to everything that you do in the description, all that stuff as well. But just kind of let people know who you are, what you're all about and what you do.

Yeah. So my name is Gabe. I'm from the Los Angeles area here in Cali and from San Pedro, born and raised here. And I'm a player development coach and a personal trainer. So the brand that I have is Quicksand Hoops. Quicksand is because I'm quick on my feet, quick thinking. And then Sandoval is my last name. So Quicksand is how we just combine that. And then hoops is because hoops is in my blood. And I've been doing this since I was a baby, man, since I was like three, you know. And so basketball has always been there and I just feel like, well, we'll dive into it. But I started training in like 20, 2017. I just decided to do my own thing and start the business. And so, you know, my dad's been helping me, my family's been helping me. Just back, you know, just backing it and. Yeah, that's how it is right there.

Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. So that's actually kind of where I want to start. Like what, what was your, what was your journey to getting into you know, training, you know, how, like, how did your, like, kind of take us through, you know, high school for you, post high school, like your journey? Because it's always, it's always cool to hear people's stories. Like, I think my story is kind of unique. Like a lot of traders I know, like, they get into a lot of unique situations with at least to them getting into training. So kind of let it, let me know. Like what, like what, what took you to where you are now?

Right, so just playing ball my whole life, as I said, and really growing up just playing travel ball, playing, you know, different AAUs. And then going to high school, it was a. It was up in there where I was going to go. So I'm from the, from the LA area and I didn't want to. My parents didn't want me to go to San Pedro High School. So this is like down the street from where we lived. They wanted me to go to a school in Long beach. And so I went to Cabrillo High School in Long beach on the west side of Long Beach. And you know, I was already nervous to go there because it was a whole new scenery for me. But, you know, I met a lot of really good people. And you know, for, for me going into that freshman year of high school, I wasn't even gonna try out for the team. I was. I was just kind of nervous. I was just a small Hispanic kid. You know, I'm the same height, really, I'm like 5 4. So I was like maybe like 5 2. And I was just going in there like, damn, you know, I'm undersized. I don't look the part, but I've been doing this my whole life, so I know I have it in me. And so, you know, just starting, I went to the tryout, I ended up making the team. And then from there, you know, my life just changed in the, in the best way possible. Met a bunch of really cool cats, had really good coaches that taught me the fundamentals, even more so than I was learning, you know, back home with pops and you know, the coaches I had here. So. So high school went. Went pretty well in the beginning. I played 9th, 10th, and 11th grade, but I just played JV. I played freshman year, 9th grade, and then I played JV this the last two years, and then I opted out of my senior year. I didn't feel. I didn't feel like I. I didn't feel like playing really. And this is what it came down to, you know, I just didn't. I don't know if I was going to fit into the teams, the chemistry and stuff like that. So I just kind of just went my own way. I just wanted to just work on me, work on my game. So for that, my senior year, I ended up just after I would, after six period, that's when basketball would happen. I would just go straight to the YMCA where I was from down the street in San Pedro, and then I would just work on my game there. And so I think that put me in the right position to be able to have that mentality of, okay, I know what I need to work on to be able to, you know, just continue playing the game of basketball and eventually coaching it.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah, that's, yeah, that, that's, that's, that's actually a really interesting story too. And I think we'll get into some of the points that you made right there. But I kind of want to talk about a question that I've gotten a little bit. And I actually, I answered this in a podcast, I think two or three weeks ago, but I kind of want to hear your take on it as well. I had somebody ask me about how my development goes now cuz like, you know, obviously you and I both, like, I'm sure you're still out getting shots up and doing stuff just cuz like you love to play basketball, so that's just what you do. And I'm the same way. Like I'm not in the gym training. Like I'm still trying to be as good as I can. So at least when I go, we pick up with guys who are who I know are better than me. Like I'm gonna be able to compete. Like that's, that's, that's always. My thing is I'm never gonna, I don't want to let myself, you know, fall off just because I'm not playing competitively right now. So for you, at least for me, my development now partially because of knowledge, but partially just because of the amount of time I put into it. I feel like I develop at a much better rate now because I kind of have a baseline that I've built. So it was compared to when I was in high school for sure. So like, is that kind of your experience as well? And what do you kind of do, you know, just yourself now? Because I actually saw some of your clips of you playing like I think it was a men's league, which is awesome by the way. I need to find a men's league in my area because like I really wanted, I really want to be playing competitively aside from just pickup and stuff. But how does you, how would you say your development is now as compared to when you were in high school?

So just as you said it, it's a little easier now to develop. And I think that the main reason is because I've already built the foundation. So I felt like I have the basics down, but now I also have the control of my body, the strength, and just like you said, the knowledge and the studying. And so now I can put it all together and I can sit and kind of assess. So say, for example, I played, you know, in the pickup and that game I wasn't shooting well, you know, I can kind of dissect in the film because my pops records every game just so I can have that content. And so I dissect the film and I'm like, okay, my body was, was off. I need to work on, on that balance. So then I'll go and attack balance that night on, you know, in the driveway or the next morning or whatever the case is, or if I need, you know, to my shot. My three pointer was also I need to get to the mid range. But then I've been struggling on one dribble pull ups. So now I know I need to go 1 dribble pull ups and just rep it out the entire session when I get in here and get these shots up. But also too, I mean, what changed my life really was Dr. Dish and the shooting machine that I have that just this is night and day. Like the amount of shots that I'm able to get up is ridiculous for myself and for clients. So, you know, knowing that I can have that, it just motivates me to be able to be like, you know what? I have no excuse. Let's just rep these out. Let's rep these floaters out, these runners. So just I kind of have a feel for what I need to work on and then I just attack it for sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that Dr. Dish, dude, that's, that's, that's my, my, my next purchase after I get my new car. Then I'm definitely. That's Dr. Dish right after that. Because that, that I think is such a game changer. You don't have like a consistent person rebound for you. There's a lot of you can do without a rebounder. But I think when it comes to just straight up getting reps up, like that's, that's such a great advantage to have. I think another thing to go back to your point about high School. I think one of the things I really like about hearing stories of, like, guys who have kind of unorthodox past. I think when I was in high school, I graduated high school. How old are you now?

26?

46. Okay. So I'm. I'm about to turn 21. When I graduated, I graduated three years ago almost. And my, my, my thought on it because, like, just a little bit of my backstory, I was going to play college basketball at a Division 3 school. That ended up not happening. So I took a year off and was training that entire year to be able to play the next year. And I had a few looks from some jucos, some other D3s, ended up falling through again. And at that point I was like, basically my plan was I'm going to go play college basketball for at least one year because then I feel like I'm going to have some sort of credibility.

Right?

That was my thing. I just wanted to. I wanted the credit because I felt like, oh, if you don't play in college, like, how are you going to be able to be a trainer? Right? Because I always knew that's what I wanted to do. Like, when I was, When I was growing up, my favorite thing was always like, listen, we're at the end of the season, like, aside from maybe junior senior year because of the playoffs, like, I was invested in that. But like sophomore year through, like, middle school, it was like I couldn't wait till February and like, the season was over because then I would just get to go train. Like, that was what I like to do. So my favorite time of the year, because I get to. I literally remember, I think it was like my 8th grade year, bus ride home, I'm writing out literally, like my workout schedule for the next, you know, six months. Like, that was. That was my thing. So I knew I wanted to do that and. But I always felt like, oh, you have to, you know, play at a certain level and earn credibility because of how good you are. And then I. After I ended up not doing that, I had a couple parents from a team that I was coaching reach out and ask if I could start working with their kids. And then I started to see their progress and I was like, well, at the end of the day and actually I gotta give a shout out here to By Any Means Basketball. I'm sure you know who. The Coleman. Yeah. So he actually is another guy who I saw before I started all this stuff. And I know I saw he didn't play in college. I was like, okay, well, if he's able to do this. Like, then I can. I can also be able to help players. That was really what it comes down to. Like, can you, can you help somebody? Like, are you able to help a player? Because I know a ton of former D1 players who just are. First of all, they're terrible at actually coaching, like, team coaching. Like, they don't have any sort of their thing. It's like, oh, they were better than everybody growing up in high school. So, like, things came easy to them. So if a player isn't that, they can't relate to them at all. So they just. At the high school level, it's just not good. But then even like some sometimes training, like, they just don't. They don't know what they're doing with that either because they haven't had to work it. They're like, oh, I play D1, so that's why you should work with me. But it's like, can you actually get them results? And so now, like, I understand that's actually how it works. So that's why I love hearing stories like yours as well. Would you say so, you know, when it comes to that, how would you say kind of your, your, your approach and your outlook has been because of just how you can relate to players now I feel like that's, That's a big thing for you.

So I think, I think if I touch back on what you said about by any means training was that I started wanting to train. So straight out of high school, I went to Cal State Long Beach. It was a university, and I knew that I wasn't going to play there. I didn't have any thought of trying to play there, but I knew they had a rec center, and so they had three courts that's lined up and there's a bunch of Hoopers there all the time. And so there is where I got to work on just the skills and kind of just. Just showcase myself and tell myself that I still got it. And so there's where, I think my third year in there, my junior year is where I started getting more interested in the actual training part of it and actually lifting the weights and then working more on the skill side. Because at that point I was looking at 10,000 hours, Devin Williams, of course, I was looking at D.J. sackman. And those two kind of just shaped my mind into like, wow, you know, they can do it, I can do it, right? And DJ Sackman, I feel like I look like him, so I'm like, he can do it. I can do It. You know, he's. He's.

You guys. You guys talk the same, too. You guys have, like, a similar kind of, like, delivery.

Yeah, right. And so I'm just like. And actually met him, too. That's a funny story. I can get into that. But.

Yeah.

So as far as that. So those are the inspirations that I had, and I'm like, I have this skill set, and I. I can teach. I feel like I have the ability to be able to teach and get my point across and actually, you know, assess what a player is doing and how to fix it and stuff. So I had that in my head the entire time. And that started off also with my dad, you know, growing up, just being in the gym every single day and just working. Right. And so learning those skills. And so if I keep, you know, I knew that I wanted to go in that path. And so from there, the coaching became really easy, because I know, like I just said, if I see that a player, for example, you know, is in the gym by himself and I'm noticing, I just kind of scope out the comp. I always try to see what's happening, and if I see that a kid is, you know, struggling on a shot, maybe he needs a little bit more lift. I go over there, hey, what's up, man? Just have a real conversation with them and then just break down the basics. Hey, maybe you should. You should start slow. You're shooting threes right now. How about you scoot a little bit closer, you know, and get underneath the rim and get some form shots? And then from there, they're like, wow. Yeah, I didn't even think about that. And so those are just this tiny nuances that you just pick up, you know, throughout the years from different people. So being able to relate is something that I can do for sure. And I think it's being personable and being able to hold a conversation and talk to people is where I'm able to get into their head and actually help them. For sure.

Yeah. Yeah. It's powerful, man. For sure, that. That ability to do that, because a lot of people just don't have it. And I think. I feel like if you do, to me, it's more about, like, what you bring to. Like what you bring to a player in terms of just, like, you know, your knowledge or your drills that you do. It's. I think it's. I think it's even deeper than that. You know, you had actually DM me about a week ago, I think talking about, just asking about, like, my program and all that stuff. And that's really what I, that was kind of my answer to you is like, I feel like it has to be more than just like drills and workouts and stuff. There's, there's, there's so much that goes into being a great player and I think you have to be able to touch on all that stuff as well. So the mental side of things. And we'll get into a lot of stuff too, because I really, really like your, your quicksand mindset stories that you do every day. I think that's awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll hop into that. But so what, what was your. Cause you mentioned this. What was your experience meeting D.J. sackman?

Yeah, so I was working at the YMCA. I worked there for three years. And there was a coach there, his name is Frank, Coach Frank. And he'd been working there for a long time. And I was always on his travel ball teams and stuff like that. And he had connections with Michael Lancaster in Impossible Training. And it was at the time where D.J. sackman was still underneath Michael Lancaster. I know they're still working together, but he was still in development. He was a new guy on the scene. And they showed up to do a camp to be able to have some tryouts for trainers. So at this point I'm a 15 year old, 16 year old kid and you know, I didn't, I didn't know who they were. And you know, I just, I was like, all right, well I'll be a part of the camp. And then I got to learn some stuff from Michael Lancaster, you know, and I thought that I knew a good amount and he was just kind of breaking it down. Use me as examples to, all right, come out here and you show us. And then I did it wrong. And he was just like, okay, let's work on this, right? So that, that mindset was engraved in me. And then after, I guess after that moment where it was maybe like on a, on a Friday, DJ still had like a three day pass. And so I was still going to the gym every day. And then the next morning I was there by myself shooting. And then he walks in, you know, and he's doing his drills on the side and he was, he's doing some two ball between the leg off the wall, like on some, you know, crazy stuff. And I'm like, dang, like, you know, and he was like, hey, come over here real quick. Record this. And I recorded a clip for him. And you know, I don't know if he remembers that, but I do. And we just. We chatted up a little bit, and then, you know, kind of just went on our way and then. Ah, man. I don't know when it was. It was recently, maybe like a year or two ago. I DMed him and I kind of commented on something, and we went back and forth in the dm. So that was. That was kind of cool. But, yeah, it was a good moment. Me and him and Micah at Lancaster, for sure.

So what. What's your. You got to kind of experience, you know, working with, you know, Michael Lancaster in person. What is that like? Because he. I would say, like, his. His style of training is very unorthodox, and there's nobody that I see who's really like him in terms of just kind of the. The stuff that he does with, like. He also. Stuff with cones and, like, with, like, the. Like the heavy balls and, like, the. I know he. I've seen him do stuff with like, like, boxes and stuff like that. Like, is that. Is that the type of stuff that you guys are doing there? Yeah, the mat, of course, of you guys are doing.

Yeah. So he pretty much. I think that whole day was all about accountability of getting low. And that was around the first time where they. They had those. The rip cones, those red cones with the. With the grip on them. And he was basically. He had the cone away. He had it in his hand. He's like, all right, just show me how you would attack the rim. And. And then I attacked the rim, but he was like, okay, well, how about you do it this time with. With the cone now test the cone. And I went down, did it between the leg move, touched a cone, and he's like, pause right there. You see, the difference is now your shoulders getting lower to the floor, and you're more right around hip level to me defensively, if I'm on defense. And then it just. It just kind of clicked in my head. I'm like, yeah, that makes a ton of sense, you know, and it was like, okay, now grab the cone and pick it up. Right? And so now you have the accountability of getting close to the ground, picking it up, laying it up, and it's. It kind of makes you think about multiple facets of the game as you're. As you're training. And then when you get to the game, I feel like it does definitely translate for sure.

Right. Right. Yeah, that's a. That's a. That's. That's definitely a good. A good point as well. With, like, the. The cones are getting low because I've seen A lot of his stuff. But it's like, it's interesting to hear from someone's perspective who's actually like been in the gym with him, like how he implements himself. I think, I think it's pretty cool. So kind of to pivot off that I want to talk about, you know, your game personally, your experiences, you know, because you being undersized, that provides a whole nother level of difficulty to a game that I already think is the most difficult game because of just the athletic piece of it, but also mixed with skills. Like, I think in my opinion, the best athletes in the world are the NBA guys, because you have to be incredibly as an athlete. Like, you know, football guys are probably the best pure athletes. But basketball, you have to have that sort of athleticism and you've got to be skilled too. And it's a lot of IQ that goes into it as well. So I think that combination makes the sport so unique. And honestly, I would say the question or the topic that players bring up to me just through DM's comments the most is about like how to, how they're going to be able to thrive being undersized. Like, that's probably number one, honestly. So again, that's why I think you being on here is a great, sort of, is a great thing because you can, you can relate to that, to that as well. So for you, like, what would you say your approach is as an undersized guy? Your like the skills you feel like that you. That you need to have as, as an undersized player, the IQ side of it, maybe players that you, you might watch, you know, mindset, stuff like that.

So I think the skill part of it, ball handling is definitely being able to handle the rock is crazy important. But aside from that, you need to have elite footwork. I think that I have really good footwork. And it's something that just started early, right? Just having the basketball in my hand and then playing around with it, dribbling, freestyling, like growing up, you know, just always having the ball in my hand. That helped a ton because now I'm able to change directions really well to be able to accelerate and decelerate. And these things are stuff that can be counted out that you don't really think about working on without the basketball, let alone with the basketball. And so being able to change direction cuts speed. I'm just a lot, I'm a lot quicker than a lot of people. And that's what gets me to where I want to go. And it wasn't until Till I got older that I realized that I need to change pace because I used to just be zoom, just like, quick. No one can stop me. I was just going, right. But then there was a lot of people growing up as I got older that they're just as quick, but they can't decelerate like I can. So now I'm like, okay, let me play slow. So then this is where you start looking at the Westbrooks, looking at the Iversons, and looking at how they're changing pace. Bonk collectors. Another one. The street ball legend, the professor, by going slow and then taking off quick. So being able to use your quickness and speed, if you have it, to be able to blow by bigger defenders, smaller defenders, and, you know, that type of stuff. Now, working on that, you know, we talked about. We're going to touch on this later. Is that the weight room?

Right?

So working on the footwork without the basketball, working on acceleration, deceleration in multi directions, right? You need to be able to work in all different planes. You need to be able to jump and turn around and sprint, then backpedal and go shuffling to the side like all that. That kind of footwork is extremely important. And so I feel like I have it naturally, but a lot of players don't. And so when they do ask in the DMs like that, I'm like, well, this is what you need to do. And now it's just, like a matter of putting that work in, but undersized. I feel like. I feel like it works in my advantage because every. Every time I go into the gym, no matter where it is, I feel all the eyes are on me to, like, to be able to perform, because I'm already. They look at me and they're like, oh, he. He's not gonna be able to hoop, or he's a small dude, and he doesn't look like he's gonna be able to do what he does. And then you have to be able to turn it on. I just have it. And, you know, just growing up, it is playing with bigger dudes, playing with more athletic guys. I just. I was in those situations where I need to be able to thrive, and those experiences helped me a ton. So now when I get there, I'm like, all right, I need to prove myself in this situation. And then I'm just going to attack it, and then they're going to see how I play. And then, you know, I feel like I'm unpredictable. To be honest, I have a lot.

To my game for sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, a couple things there. Like, I think we just talked about the end right there. When you're, when you're undersized or really take anything in basketball, like, you know, maybe you're not the quick, maybe someone who's not quick, right? Someone who doesn't have your quickness, that there's, there's certainly like, you have to find ways to overcome that. So I feel like for players like that growing up where you, you might have to compensate for something that, that actually benefits you long term because you have to learn how to work to be able to overcome that. That's kind of going back to my point I made earlier. A lot of the high level players that I, that I know who are in the whole sort of training thing, like locally, a lot of them, not, not a lot, but a couple of them that I've worked with just, it really seems to me it's like, okay, when you were in high school, like you were bigger than everybody. And because of that, like you got to, where you got to not say you didn't work at him. I'm saying you didn't have to work like the guy who wasn't bigger than everybody, who wasn't, who wasn't the best athlete. Like, they had to work differently. So their approach, their ability to relate to players is going to be completely different than it will be for you. Not to say that you can't overcome that, but if you don't consciously understand that, then it's going to be, it's going to be a struggle for you. So I think one thing that I've been talking about recently is like being able to kind of flip the script. I had a podcast last week talking about working on the cold. And you know, you're la, so you, you don't, you don't have to worry about that quite as much as like, I'm in Pennsylvania. So like we get, we got all four seasons and it's, it's probably like 25 degrees out right now. But you know, we have like, I get that question all the time. Like, you know, it's cold out, like it's snowing, like, what am I supposed to do? And my thought is like, now we have to be able to take, you know, it's not going to be perfect all the time, right? It's not going to be ideal every single time. And if you're still able to overcome that, then when you know, you and another player who doesn't have to deal with, you know, in purpose situations, you Guys get into a position where all of a sudden something goes wrong, right? You guys are both in the season, and you guys both get hit with something maybe that bounces right off you because you're used to having to overcome things. But that player who maybe doesn't have to, that might derail him. Like, that might derail his whole season, or it might take him to 2, 3 weeks to overcome something like that. Whereas the player who's going to build that mental toughness over a long period of time, that's something they're going to be able to kind of naturally do because they've experienced it before. So that's. That's kind of one thing. And honestly, that, that's. I'm glad that you brought that up. I think. I think the other big thing too, right there is. Is playing with pace is so big. It's like when I watch guys who are, who are even. Even guys who aren't undersized, like the best guards, period, are just. They're so good at being unpredictable. Like you said, like, you're unpredictable. That's really one of the biggest things. Like, if I, like when I'm watching, like, Trae Young. Trae Young is so good at changing pace because he's not like, he's. He's. He's undersized for the NBA. He's not like a crazy athlete. He's a good athlete, but he's not crazy. Like, he's not. He's not playing above the rim or anything like that.

Right?

And honestly, compared to a lot of guys who guard him, he probably isn't that much quicker than them, but he's so good at going from slow to fast, like, just being unpredictable that guys can't. Can't stay in front of him. I actually did a. The video I just dropped today was about handling pressure. And Trae Young was a guy that I was watching because I watched his game in 2018 when he was at Oklahoma. They were playing against West Virginia, and West Virginia was really good that year, Press Virginia. So they're pressing. They had Javon Carter, who plays with the Suns now. He was their guy and really, really good defender. And so basically, Trae Young was getting full court 94ft the whole entire game. Like it was. He was being fronted. They were not giving him the ball. And he's got one of the best defenders in the country on him the whole time. And the reason he was able to. To thrive in the situation still, I think they lost the game. But honestly, he didn't play all that well. But, like, I was really watching him play, like, him play full court and handle pressure, and he did that easily because he changed his pace. And as good a defender and as great an athlete as Javon Carter is, he. If you don't know what the offensive guy's going to do, he's going to have a split second on you. When he decides to speed up, you're going to have to catch up to him, and he's going to slow down, and you're going to have to slow down late, and he's just going to go again. So it's like you can kind of just play with your guy if you kind of understand. Understand that. That part of the game. So change of pace is such a big deal. And whenever I talk about ball handling, that's like, that's really point number two. I talked about ball control. Like, you got to be able to control the ball, because if you can't control it, then it doesn't really matter if you can change pace because you're going to lose the ball. But then after that, I'm like, then we gotta go change pace, because that's how you become hard to guard. And at that point, it's not even really about how big or small you are. It's like you. You have the advantage over your defender every single time because he doesn't know what you're gonna do when you do. So that's. That. That's. That's definitely a big thing for me. And you also touched on it, the weight room. And also, you know, it's something that I like is you're in your weight room. You're your weight room right now, but it's pretty awesome. So just. Just real quick, like, what is your. What's your home gym setup like? That's at your house. At your house.

Real quick. Do you mind if we. If we tap back a little bit for that? Because that's something that's came into my head.

Oh, go for it. Go for it.

Yeah, of course, it could be beneficial. So I think. And I'll get back to the weight room.

Yeah, yeah, go for it.

So also, as an undersized guard, what I learned playing in Long Beach. So in Long beach, they have that Paulie, Jordan, Compton, Milliken Wilson. So there's a really. It's a really good competition all throughout. And so what I. What I learned was that I needed to develop a unique shot, something that was going to be able to set me apart and be able to get over the big guys and so it was right around the time 09 is when I got into high school. And so that was right around the time that Rondo was killing. Rondo was on the, on Boston. He was hitting floaters and runners. And I was like, I can do that. Like, I feel like he was thriving at a high level. And then before him, Tony Parker and Chris Paul getting those floaters in. And then I'm like, let's, I told my dad, let's study this to see how the footwork is happening and let's just go rep this out. And then I just repped it out for a whole summer. Runners 1 foot, runners 2 foot, runners off foot, like Steve Nash. Just different types of finishes around the rim like that. And that just set me apart from a lot of people because I was able to use my quickness to be able to get into the teeth of the defense. And then from there I can dissect, I can go up for the runner and I can pump fake and go down low now. Right. So that gave me the option and just opened up my game a ton. And then as I developed on that, then I started to be able to shoot threes when I got stronger and then that just opened up everything because now you can't leave me open for three because I'm hitting that. I can pump fake, get to the middle floater, I can dime. Right. And so that is really important. And later in life I ended up learning that the mid range was, is my, I mean the mid range is probably my new favorite shot. So that's the, you know, just the Jordan, Kobe mid range, Iverson mid range, Chris Paul mid range. So that type of stuff will set you apart. So get into the teeth of the defense and have a way to finish for sure.

Yeah.

And then I can get back to the weight room, but.

Well, actually it's, that's what I told you. Like this is going to be like just so free flowing because now you brought that up. That's going to get me another point to the bet. So there's a kid that I work with who is really, really undersized but really, really good. And I think the, the most unique part of his game and the reason he's so difficult to stop is first of all, lights out shooter, super quick and has great touch around the rim so can finish floaters either hand. One foot, two foot, doesn't matter. So like literally if you go out and guard him, he's so quick, he's gonna get by you. And then if a guy steps up, he's gonna hit the floater over him. If you play off him, he'll shoot the three. He's gonna hit it. So it doesn't even matter at this point. He's like, he has that stuff down and. And it's so hard people to stop him now. And I think one of the things too with that is like you talked about, okay, I developed my three. Now I know that people have to play that. So I can go pump fake and then I can get to the, into the paint or I can pull up in the mid range. I think that's a big part to developing your iq when you're like, okay, you know, I know I can shoot, I can shoot the three now. So it's like, what's my next step? Okay, so my next step is if I see my guy closing out on me because he knows I can hit the shot, now I'm a pump fake and score off that. Like, basketball is really, really simple. I think we see a ton of highlights where, you know, we see, we talk about Trae Young. The highlights we see of Trae Young are, you know, him hitting 35 footers and hitting these crazy shots. Steph Curry hitting these crazy shots. Really any player you want to think of. But the majority of basketball is just simple plays and, you know, hitting an open catch and shoot three, pump fake. That guy goes by you, you pull up or you get it, you get into the paint and finish. That's most. That's what basketball really is. Like, the majority of time, probably 85% of the points that you score are going to be relatively routine things. So getting really, really good at those routine things, saying, you know, I can hit, I can hit the Kaiju shoot 3. I have a pump thing that I know I can sell. And then I can hit that mid range pull up or I can go floater off that as well. Like that I think is such a big key.

Valuable.

Yeah, yeah. So anyway, back to, back to your weight room. Kind of take me through, like, what, what that's like. Because I think that's really, really. Especially now with the pandemic and all that stuff. Like that's such a big thing for you to have.

Yes. So we started. So the personal training thing is reason why we even started this at all. So the garage had a bunch of just this old stuff in here, a desk. And it just, it was just a mess in here. Right. And my grandpa would be in here all the time. This is his man cave. And then, you know, he. We talked to him about it. And we're just like, you know, hey, I think it's best that we just clear it out and we make a gym that we, you know, we can have a good amount of space and use it for the better. Good. Right. And so from that point, we just started clearing everything out. And I was working at the same time I was working on getting my certification through NASM to be a personal trainer. And from there, as I'm working on that, we're clearing all this stuff out. We started purchasing equipment. We knew that immediately we're going to get some rogue equipment. So Rogue is one of the best on the market for, for the power racks and for their bars. And so that was one of the first purchases. You can see here. These things are us made. They're going to last forever, a lifetime. And then the bars as well, the Ohio Power bars. So those two things, we knew those are going to be the main pieces of equipment. And then from there you just go on Craigslist, get some weights here, get some weights there. And then all of a sudden you have a gym, right? And then you have the mats that are on the floor. And then it was really, it was really private initially. Like, I had my certification, but I just didn't know how to reach out to people on personal training basis. And so it was more just like our gym that we just worked out in. And then the pandemic hits. And a little bit before the pandemic, where I had a little bit of group sessions here and there, but it was nothing. But then the pandemic hit and. And I didn't train from March until like April, May until like May, June. Right, right on the area. I finally had a client, and then I started taking more clients. And then, you know, I grew from there.

Yeah.

Um, but I mean, we have a treadmill here. We have two bikes, we have two power bars, the power rack. We have all the weight plates from 45, 35, tens, fives, dumbbells. Um, looking around, I mean, we have, we have, we have a good amount of stuff to get a really good workout in. So, you know, these, the workouts happen pretty much every day, money through money through Sunday. Really? Sunday through Sunday?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. So what would you say, you know, for you personally, for players you work with, what are some of the biggest keys that you, that you work on, that you look at, you target when, when you have yourself or one of your clients in the weight room with you?

So I have more at the moment. I have three basketball clients and I have five personal training clients that don't even touch basketball at all. So with the three basketball ones, we're definitely working on a lot of footwork because I know. Understand that they don't have. Not everyone has that footwork, that natural ability to be able to move like that. And so definitely footwork. So we're working on a lot of ladder stuff, working a lot of body weights, Understanding how to move, I think that's important. I think a lot of basketball players, they're not. They're not. They're not great at moving. Being able to move, being able to squat with proper form, being able to have the mechanics of their posture, being straight on certain movements. So usually they touch the weights and then they end up getting injured or they just. They go through it without really having the understanding of it. So I like to start off with the base, so working on the feet, working on the ankles, working on band work. Band movements to be able to, you know, get those joints moving in different directions. And then, you know, work on single leg stuff. Right. Work on balance. So these things are all important on building the base. And then eventually, once you feel like they're ready and you. They look strong when they're standing and when they're on the core, they. They're on balance, then you can start adding in the weights. In my opinion, obviously, there's. There's different approaches and you can add weight sooner, but this is what I kind of been doing and it's, it's been. I feel like it's been working.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's, that's, that's such a great point too. There's another guy that, That I follow, PGF performance. I don't know if you know him as well. Okay. Yeah, he's one of the. He's one of the big guys in that sort of space. And that's kind of what he promotes too, is like, you know, he has. He has his, like, body weight stuff that he does where it's like. That's where he starts out, where it's like a lot of guys, like, they go straight to the weights, but there's a lot of stuff you can do to maximize your athletic ability without that. Like, there's a lot of stuff that you can hit. A lot of movements that might seem really, really basic, but players just aren't. Especially a lot of basketball players, because a lot of times super tall, long legs, like, you know, guys aren't. Guys aren't really, like, flexible at all. They aren't mobile. I should Say, like, there's a lot of stuff that, that guys need to hit that they, that they don't because it's, it's, it might be difficult. And so they see, like, okay, you know, I'll just go squat. But it's like the way that you're squatting, first of all, might not be good for you, but also it might just be that you're not really maximizing what you could be doing in the weight room just because you're not hitting those, those basics. So I think, I think, you know, like you just said, the basics is such a big thing. I think a lot of players just kind of gloss over.

I agree.

Yeah.

And I think even more so for just the personal training clients as well. You know, if a client's trying to lose weight or they're trying to gain some strength, I always put them through basic warm ups, basic stretches, you know, and being able to attack, to attack balance. I think balance is extremely important because like you said, they want to hop on to the more difficult barbell movements. Some barbell deadlifts, some barbell rows and barbell squats. But their form and their ability to breathe and being able to move their spine in a certain direction and being able to maintain that posture is not great yet. Right. And so I've had clients are like, you can see it in their face, like, I don't want to do this, you know, but this is, this is super valuable. That's going to help you get to that point of lifting heavier weight or losing the way that you wanted to lose. Right. And so definitely I, even for myself, I still try to work on, on those basic fundamentals.

Yeah, when possible. Yeah, absolutely. So do you have with those guys that you train, those basketball players, do you, do you have guys that you work with, like in the weight room and on the court?

Yeah, So I have, I have two, basically three of them. Three. One of them is really into the weights and I need to get more on him with it. He just actually got his cast off, and so we're definitely going to start attacking the weights a little bit more, get him stronger because he's going into high school. The other one, Mateo. So Joshua was the one that got the cast off. Mateo is, he's already doing weights with, with his mom and his family there. And so when he gets here, we're just working on footwork, working on just basic mechanics like that. Right. Speed, agility and ball handling and stuff. So, you know, we're in and out of the weight room constantly. The garage Door is always open. So we come in here. Let's go outside now. Let's get some shots. Let's come back in and get some ball handling. And so definitely, for sure. I always try to touch different athletic movements, different explosion movements, power output, and, you know, all that type of stuff. Jumping mechanics, because everyone wants to jump high, and so. But it's all about mechanics, you know, and it's. If we're not touching down on those mechanics, then you can't. You can't grow that on that side of it, so.

Exactly, exactly. And I think part of that, too, is like, learning. So, you know, guys want to jump higher, but you also have to learn how to jump in the context of an actual game. So if your mechanics aren't off, like, you might be able to jump high, but basketball, you have to be able to jump high, coming off different angles, different speeds. And of course, there's a ball in play, other people around you. So that's again, where it goes back to basics, where, like, jump mechanics might seem like, you know, why am I doing this? But it's like, that's so important because basketball, like. Like, you have to be able to move like a basketball player. It's not just like, oh, you know, where to go out. We're squat as much weight as possible, and then we'll be. We'll be cool. Right? Some players who might have natural, like, naturally be crazy quick, but maybe they lack some strength. Maybe for them, like, that takes them to a whole new level. But for a lot of players, it's. It's. It's. It's more basic than that. I think. I think that's. But that's a good point you touched on. But that was my question to you. It's like you're kind of how you interact the weight room and the court, where it's like, okay, we're gonna go and we're gonna get work on this footwork, these explosive movements, and then we're able to kind of transfer that over to what we're doing on the basketball court.

Yeah. So basically, like, with that, too, I started actually PJF performance Paul Flavor. She posted something about. He posted something about how to structure a workout for an athlete that's doing basketball and weights. And he was saying that. Yeah. So he. I think he was talking about finish your. Your cardio outside, finish the conditioning and finish the skill work first and then hop into the weights after. So that way, you know, you're able to. You don't have to worry about your shot being Off. If you're lifting the weights before and then you go out there, your shots are off. Right. There's like a. There's a different learning curve to that.

Yeah.

Um, actually, I prefer that more. Like, in my own training, I like to lift and then go out there if I can, and then shoot just because it. It feels different and then you adjust to it. But as a younger athlete, it's probably, you know, it was. It was frustrating trying to do that. It's like, wow, my shots off the ball feels weird. Like, what's happening? So, you know, in that video, he broke down. Just work on the skill stuff first, if it's shooting, and then come in here and get those weights, upper body, lower body. And, you know, really, all you really need to do is you need to work on a lot of vertical pulls, horizontal pulls, horizontal pushes, and then vertical pushes. Right. And so there's different styles and there's. This is a ton of movements that you can. You can look up on your own, or you can just, you know, follow people like. Like Paul or, you know, like yourself. We're just looking at different people and learning from them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's. That's. And that's. That's a great point that, that you made, because I. I don't know, I was a part of. I forget what it's called with pg. I think it's called edge you. Or something like that. He's like this thing basically, that has a lot of stuff, and I was in it for a little bit where he. He. That was where I saw that video where he kind of broke down that. The whole sort of thing. But like you said, I think it also depends on, like, you know, you personally, what. What feels better for you is it, you know, hitting the weight room first and then in the quarter going core weight room. I think. I think for, like, for me, I'd rather go core weight room. But I also think it depends on what sort of lifts I'm doing that day, so. Or what exercise, I should say. But I think it can all kind of depend. But that's a. That. That's. That's. That's kind of leads me to our next point, which is, like, when we talk about basketball. So we talk about your, like, the basketball workouts, and we talked about this in our DMs as well. What's your kind of your. Your philosophy, your approach to how you structure your workouts? Or you can even say, like, how you. How you structure your player development. So if you have a kid and you're working with him for a few months. Like, you know, how do you start that off and then ultimately, like, how do you progress that. That player forward?

Right? So I also. I like to look at what they're strong at and what, you know, what they already have developed. And then I like to just attack that and make that elite. So if they're great at it, I want to make it even better. So that way, you know, you can have something where you're just a lead at, and then you can start working on maybe the opposite hand and then develop that side of it. Because I think that growing up, when I was doing both of them, I was trying to work on my left and my right and work on different moves. It was. I wasn't growing as much as I could have. Right. If I would have just, like, worked on shooting constantly and just master that and then move on to the next right. I think one. One. One or two skills at a time throughout a, you know, a few months period is more beneficial, in my opinion, than trying to attack a lot of different skills at the same time on the court. So, you know, with. With Joshua, for example, especially after he got. So he's a lefty, and he broke. He broke a bone in his left. In his left hand, right? And so before that, we were working on a lot of shooting, and he was. He's getting stronger now, so he's. He's getting that. The opposite hand off, and it's not inflicting anymore. He wasn't doing any thumb flicks. And so we mastered the basics on that. And then he broke his hand, and it's like, damn. All right, so how can we attack this? How can we approach this? Well, your right hand needs to be as good as your left was. Now we have the opportunity to work on that. And so we just did basic ball handling. We did some windshields. We did this reps. This reps in a bunch of different manipulations. Right. I saw a video that you have. Right. So I get on the. On the dribble bridge. You know, there's a. I don't know if you've seen the dribble bridge. It's. It's kind of like a. Yeah. Two cones. And you have a PVC pipe.

Yeah, yeah.

And so you can do different type of movements to hold you accountable for staying low. And we're just doing a bunch of, you know, just repetitions on that, working on dribbling and then attacking different finishes at the rim. A floater on your hand, like Curry, you Know, right hand layup, reverse layup with the right. And so this different styles of the same kind of movement.

Yeah.

And this. This getting him to where he's just as good or even better when he comes back, you know, from that cast being off.

Right.

And so. But, like, you know, we talked about in the dm, for example, if you're doing punches on the right wing, right. So you start off, we're attacking all this. Attack and get a punch and then pull up, let's attack, get a punch, and then between pull up, let's get a punch and then attack them. Go for a delay. You know, there's different styles of the same move throughout the whole session. Yeah, you don't even have to go to that left side throughout the whole session. You can do an ex session.

Exactly.

Just focus on that one side. You know, the Kobe mentality, that mama mentality, is doing the same move for hours. I mean, it'll. It'll take you a long way.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And that. That's. That was the point I was gonna make, is like, if I'm working with the player, and there'll be times where, like, you know, like, there was. There's one guy I work with, and I remember when we started, it was like, we just worked layups. We worked layups for, like, probably the first two weeks. Like, I don't think we shot outside the paint one time. The first two weeks were there. It was all layups and, like, building form. At this point, that was probably. Man, that would have been almost two years ago. I think, like, next month would be two years. And at this point, we're shooting threes. We're working on different moves. We're going step backs, punches, more advanced sort of stuff. But that's two years of progress right there. We started. It was, like, real focus on basic stuff, and we built that foundation. And then now, like, the progress is that. That's what we talked about earlier. Like, we. You got to build that baseline first, and then progression becomes a lot easier. And that was what. That was. What we're seeing now, like, that. That's the payoff we see now is, like, things get picked up much, much quicker because we spent the time doing the stuff that was not fun for me as a trainer. Like, no one wants to just, you know, do layups for, you know, months at a time, but it's like, we got to do. We gotta. We gotta get that stuff down so we can get to the fun stuff. I think touching on what you said as well, with the One to two skills at a time. That's exactly right. But I think a lot of times players take this so literally. They're like, oh, so that means I can only work on, you know, layups coming from the left wing with my left hand. That's only. That I can do. Like, that's, that's a lot of times how they take it. But it's, it's, it's. You have to take it in context. So one of the skills at a time, we might say that one skill is working on our ability to create separation in the mid range. So that might mean that we spend a whole summer working on punches, step backs, inverted drags, like a whole bunch of stuff we can go to at that second level to get into the shot, get into another, step back, get into a finish, get into a floater, or just be able to create and then make a play for somebody else like that. That could be one skill. And then our next skill could be shooting. And that could mean catch and shoot threes. That could mean coming off of pin downs. That could mean relocation. Like, that could be the skills that we work on. It might seem like it's more than one individual skill, right? It's not just catch and shoot from the corner, right? We might work on some other stuff as well, but we're building that same skill set. So I think a lot of times players need to take that into consideration as well. It's not just like, oh, I can only do, you know, my one skill is going to be, you know, catch and shoot, elbow jump shots on the right elbow. Like, that's not what that means. We have to. You have to take that into consideration. When you talk about kind of building those one or two skills, right?

And when you, when you talk about players having that mentality of either they're stuck in that mentality where I'm going to have to be this kind of player, or they get to the point where it gets boring for them. You can see in their body language like, I don't want to do this anymore. And so when I see that body language at that point is where I hop in and I do the drill with them. And then we go first to three, first to four. Let's go. Now we're competitive. And now, you know, don't let me beat you, because, you know, you're gonna hear it from me. You know what I mean? So that I think that getting that competitive drive and showing them that I'm willing to put in the work on these basic movements with you I think that's gone a long way and opens up the mood and it kind of just like, all right, I don't have to be so serious about it. And, you know, we don't have to be like awkward silence, like, fuck, you know, kind of like we're doing the same move over and over now. We make it fun and we kind of take a different approach. And I think that I'll continue to keep doing that because I enjoy myself working on those skills. So.

Yeah, yeah, I think that the competitive part of it's huge too. Like with the player that I'm talking about, when we started off, like after, you know, the first couple weeks, you know, he's starting to get it a little bit. But you can tell, like you said, like, he's starting to be like, oh man. Like, this is kind of getting repetitive. So you can add different things in. Like, we might say, okay, we're going to do Mikins and you've got to make 10 in a row and I'm giving you one minute to do it. And if you don't get it, you're running. Or we might say you have, you know, you have a minute to make 15, but you have, you know, you have to run across, you know, from sideline to sideline for everyone that you miss. So there, there's one right there. Like, we're, we'll just make it competitive within for themselves. Like, we do like a drill where it was like a. Basically three levels of layups. So we start off like right by the block and we just go two steps right into a layup. Then we move back a little bit, sort of in the mid range area. We go one dribble into it and then we start three point lining. You get two dribbles into it and I say like, okay, you've got, you've got a minute at, at each range to get eight in a row. And now they're like, they're going from like, okay, like I'm doing a drill now. It's like, okay, now I got to compete. Like, now I have to like, there's. There's a clock now. I think that alone can not only make it more, more fun and like more. Get them into it more, but also like, I think it helps them develop more because now there's some pressure. Like there's, there's some actual. There's. There's consequences to which in games if you fail, you lose. So in workouts, practices, adding in situations where they can fail and lose and there's the pressure of that, I think. I think accelerates the development process as well.

I agree.

Yeah. So just kind of to close out. I want to get a. I want to kind of talk about. I had mentioned this earlier, but your whole quicksand mindset thing, your stories that you post, videos that you post, talking about that when. What. What did you know? What was today for that? Because I know you do them every day and you've done them for a while.

38.

Okay.

It's been 38 days straight.

Okay.

The notes on it. Yeah, it's 38 days.

Okay. So today. Yeah, today's 38.

Mm.

Okay. So what was your. What was your inspiration for starting that?

The inspiration. Let me actually make sure it's 38. Yep. Today is gonna be day 38. The inspiration behind it. So I'm a huge fan of Russ and Nipsey Hussle, so Russ actually have his book in front of me. It's. It's all in your head by Russ.

Okay.

And he posts. He's just a lot about confidence, self belief, just having that passion and going towards your goals, having that mindset of knowing that you're manifesting, really seeing it ahead of time and making it happen. And so, you know, even when he had nothing, right? When he had a thousand plays in 2016, and then now he's. He had a billion streams this past. This past year on Spotify. And so is just seeing. Seeing people like that say it out loud. And I feel like I have that in me to be able to. It's just hiding in there that I wanted to be out there more. And so he posted a video on his story, and he was just talking to the camera, and he was approaching a conversation about people saying that he comes off as arrogant, and he was just.