The Science Behind Improving Your Skills

Foreign. Welcome to the Vision Driven Basketball Training Podcast. Really appreciate you guys tuning in. Whether you're an Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube. Thank you guys for being here. If you are an Apple podcast, really appreciate if you guys would scroll down, leave a review if you're on YouTube, drop a like and subscribe if you're new. And we're going to hop into it. So, you know, this. This week's topic I'm really, really excited to talk about because I think it's going to have a lot of really direct impact in your training that you guys are able to take right now and become better. And, you know, kind of today's whole whole focus is how to get your practice to transfer to games, okay. Because there's a lot of mistakes players make and there's a lot of mindsets players fall victim to because they're just very the popular thing to do. And at the end of the day, it can really ruin the success you can see on the court. So today we're going to talk about what's called skill acquisition. Okay? But before we even get into that, I want to let you guys know, as you guys can see, I'm wearing it right now. Vision Driven Basketball training T shirts are here. As you guys see this, this is going to drop on a Sunday. So tomorrow, Monday is when these are going to be live. So if you check my Instagram page, follow me at Vision Driven Basketball. Also, I'm probably going to post about it on YouTube as well. You'll be able to get one of these. It'll be 20 bucks. So if you want to help support the channel, I really appreciate that. You know, if you guys want to see the back too, I've got some stuff on the back of the shirt as well, but that's on my Instagram too. So like I said, make sure you follow me on there if you do not. And I'm gonna let you guys know as soon as it's live, soon as it's public. And again, if you guys want to support, you'll be able to be able to rock VIN Driven Basketball. I'd really appreciate that. So just wanted to let you guys know about that. So today we're gonna break this down from even more of a scientific view. Okay. Because, you know, I want to give you guys a different angle of why I train the way I do. And honestly make me doing this research this week even is gonna affect me moving forward. Like, it even helped me to realize some things I didn't know before. And, you know, I think that's very important. I think this week for me has been big and just making sure that I never stay stagnant. I'm always trying to learn more, get better at more, work on my own skills on the court, and then obviously with this stuff as well, so I can become the best that I can be. And that. That whole. That. That search for me led me to this week's topic, which is all about skill acquisition. Okay. Because everybody wants to know how to improve their skills. I mean, I get so many dms every day about just how do I improve my skills, okay? Like, whether it's a, you know, shooting, ball handling, whatever it is that players want to get better at. And obviously there's drills you can do for that. But there's a specific way you need to approach your training if you want to actually see those skills payoff in games. You want to see those. Those transfer. Okay? Keep that. That word in your mind. Transfer. Okay? So the first thing that I want you guys to understand about the way you need to practice, the way your workouts need to be, is that you need to approach it with a growth mindset. So what is a growth mindset? And obviously, listen, we're going to get into the actual basketball stuff in a minute, but this is super important, so you guys need to make sure that you listen closely to what I'm going to say here. So a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset, okay? When you have a fixed mindset, that means that you think that where you are now, that's where you are. Like, that's final. Everything's final. You lose a game. Well, we lost. I'm a loser. I had a bad workout. You know, I'm not good. I messed up a drill. I'm never doing that drill again because I'm bad at it. That is somebody who has a fixed mindset. They don't understand that they can get better at something. People who have a growth mindset are the ones who understand that no matter where they are now, they have the ability to get better at something. And they also understand that it's okay to be bad at something if you work on it, because one day, if you put enough time into it, you will be good at it. Okay? And they constantly. They don't get discouraged by looking bad. They don't get discouraged by not performing well, because they understand that if they put the right work and they make the right adjustments, they can get to the level they want to get to. Okay? So you need to make sure that you have a growth mindset if you want to be an effective player, okay? So off the bat, that's an important thing that you need to make sure that you have. Okay? So one thing I'll say to kind of get into that is that that's where everything starts. Like the growth mindset, you approaching it with that mentality that's going to lead into all the other things we're going to talk about today. Okay? But if you don't have that, if you think that you have to look good in practice, you think that everything has to be perfect, then what I'm going to say and the rest of this isn't going to matter to you, okay? So make sure that you understand that, that every time you approach the gym, you. You're in there to get better, even if you look bad at first. Okay? That's all right. So you've probably heard the saying that you want to make practice hard so that the games are easy, right? You probably had a coach say that to you. You read it in a book, you saw it on a YouTube video, whatever. That's one of the most cliche things in all of sports. Make practices more difficult so that games are easier for you. And today we're going to break down the science behind that and why that's actually true. And we're not just going to leave it at that because we don't. Like, what does it mean to make practice harder? Does that mean that I need to put up a thousand more shots per practice? Does that mean that I need to run 10 more sprints at the end of practice every time? Like, does that mean I need to start doing three ball drills instead of two ball drills? Like, that's, that, that's. That's. I want to, I wanted to spell that. Like, I want to make it clear, concrete stuff you can do to actually see that improvement. So before we even get into this, let, let's break down some definitions. What is, what is skill? And what is skill acquisition? Right. Well, obviously skill acquisition, that's you acquiring skills, right? Like, that's pretty, it's pretty straightforward. That's what we all want. But let's talk about what skills actually are, because this is a crucial thing for you to understand. And most players don't get this. And this is something that I struggle with so much as a player because I just, I didn't know this, and I know a lot of guys who also don't know this. And this is something that was broken down to me today, and it was very, very interesting to hear about. But Essentially, skills are when you think about what a skill is, right? The first thing you're thinking of is, you know, shooting or ball handling or finishing or passing, right? Those are skills you think of. But really, if we take shooting, for example, shooting is just one part of a skill, okay? Because when you're in a game, you aren't just shooting the basketball. There's other things you have to do before you get to that point. What you need to understand is that it's like a pyramid almost, okay? So you have, you know, doing something. So we have the actual technique, all right, that. That's doing it, right? But you also have to read and then plan and then do. Okay, so you have three steps in a skill. You have to read what's happening, okay? So for example, if we're talking about shooting, when you catch the basketball, you've got to see where the defense is, See if you have an open shot, you got to see where your teammates are. You got to get your ass to the rim to see how far away you are. Then you have to plan, right? You've got to, you know, you got to realize how far away you are from the basket. And you've got to make the decision, am I going to shoot the ball? Am I not going to shoot the ball? And then after that, after you do those two things, then you actually do the actual technique of shooting, okay? So that's the third step. The first two steps, though, are areas that players really ignore during training. Okay? For the most part, players just ignore the. The. Those. That's. That's. That's two thirds of. Of a skill is you being able to read the situation and then plan what you're going to do and how you're going to do it. All that comes before you actually doing the skill. So you need to understand that when you're training, if you're ignoring two of these three skills, two of these three aspects of skill, then you actually getting skills, they're not going to be there in games, okay? Because right now we're talking about skills to transfer into games. Yes, if you just stand around shooting threes, you'll get better at shooting threes. But when we talk about you have to actually do that in games. There's. There's more at play, there's more variables there. So you have to understand that it's not going to be the same, okay? So teammates, like, you know, the one thing I'll say about this is that there's. There's a direct. You can see this in any sport okay, so we'll take, let's say golf, right? So, you know, in golf, obviously, first of all, if you're, let's say you're putting, right, you have to read how far you are away from the hole, okay? Then obviously you got to plan how you're going to hit the ball. You got to know what the angle is, how far you are, all that stuff. You got to plan what you're going to do to hit that ball and get it in there. And then after that is when you actually do it. A lot of golfers work for hours on their putting, right? But they also have to work on those first two skills as well, okay? So if you just, you know, if you just are putting from the same spot all day for practice, well, what if you're in a different spot? You got to make a different read. You got to, you got to have a different plan, okay? So that's where the variables come into play. Same thing in football, right? You know, if you have a quarterback, he has to first of all make the read. How's the defense playing? Who's open? What's. What is the play calling for? Where do we want to get the ball? Then he's got a plan, okay, this is the guy I'm going to throw the ball to. This is where I'm going to throw it. Then he actually has to do the skill of throwing the ball, okay? Because obviously quarterbacks have to work on their arm and their accuracy. But if they don't, if they're not able to read and then plan first, they're going to be terrible quarterbacks. That's why you see guys in the NFL who come in, you know, you got like a, like a, like Jamarcus Russell, right? Who, for the Raiders came in, crazy arm, could throw the ball 80 yards, right? But he, he's not great at reading the defense or planning and making good decisions. So all that talent, all that skill, quote unquote, that he has doesn't actually transfer into games because it's about more than just your talents. It's about more than just your ability to throw a ball as far as you can, okay? So that's where the kind of, the unwritten part of skill development is that you need to have more than just the actual physical work on your skills, okay? It's more than that. Same thing in baseball, right? You know, a pitcher, he has to understand, you know, first of all, he's got to make a read, okay? Who am I? Who's the batter? Is he right handed or left Handed, you know, what's the scouting report? Is this guy a power hitter? Is this guy a contact guy? Is he at the top of the line of bottom of the lineup? Who's on base? Is there a guy in second, a guy on third, a guy on first? The base is loaded. How many outs are there? Then he's going to make three. Okay, what's the count? Then he's got to make the plan, what pitch am I going to throw? Where am I going to throw it? And then he's got to actually do it. Okay? So that pitcher is going to work all the time on his ability to actually throw a baseball, put it in the right place, work on his different sorts of pitches. But that's the third step. If he doesn't get those first two steps right, he's going to be a bad pitcher. Okay, so same thing in basketball, right? If you are a point guard and you know you want to be a great passer, okay. It's about more than just you working on your one handed passing in practice. Okay? Go throwing it up against the wall. You have to make a read first. Where's the defense? Where's my teammate? Then you got to plan, how am I going to get the ball to him? Do I need to throw with one hand, two hand overhand bounce pass, chest pass? Then you got to actually do the skill. It's the same with any skill in basketball. Okay? So that's a super crucial thing for you to understand when we talk about skill acquisition and developing your skills, is that there are two steps that a lot of players ignore. And if you do that, when you get in games and you have to, you have to have that part of your skills, if you're missing it, well, obviously it's gonna be bad news for you. So. And the other thing with those skills is that a lot of times you have to make those decisions in a split second. So you don't have the luxury of be, you know, in practice if you're just by yourself being able to take your time and figure out, okay, and I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. When you're in a game, you got to be able to go at the snap of a finger, right? Like you, you got to be able to go and make those three, go through those three steps as quickly as possible if you want to be an effective player. Okay, so now that we know this, right, we know that there's three steps to acquiring skills, to improving your skills, how do we actually practice this? Okay, what do you what do you need to do in your practice to make sure you hit all three of these so that you actually see those skills transfer into games? You know, there was a. Basically the comparison is that there's block practice and then there's random practice. Okay, so what is that? Right? Well, here's the thing. Block practice is the most common type of thing that you see in the game of basketball. This would be where, you know, you shoot 10 shots at a spot. Let's say, you know, you the five spot shooting like, you know, the baselines, the wings on the top. You shoot 10 shots, 10 shots at each. Okay? That's block practice right there, where you're doing the same thing over and over again. You don't have to make any reads, you don't have to plan. You just get the ball and you just work on it. Now, that is definitely going to work in your technique, and you need that. Okay, I want to make this very clear. I am not saying that you do not need block practice, okay, to work on your technique. A lot of times, that's the most effective way to do it, the most efficient way to do it. But you can't skip out on random practice, which random practice would be. Let's say you're practicing shooting threes. Well, maybe for this sort of practice, you shoot spots at different. You shoot shots at different spots. So you shoot one from the corner, then you sprint to the top, shoot one there. And then you go to the wing, shoot one there. Then you go to the corner again, shoot one there. Then you go to the other corner, shoot another one there. You're switching up where you're shooting from. Therefore, you have to read it differently and plan differently every single time. Maybe you're gonna move farther back for your shot. So maybe the first shot you're gonna take in the mid range, then you're gonna go shoot a three from the top, Then you're gonna go shoot an elbow jump shot, then you'll shoot an NBA 3 from the wing, right? You. You have to make a different read, and you have to plan differently every single time because it's not the same shot. Okay? So that's the difference between block practice and random practice. And you can, again, you can use that for any sort of skill. Now, there is a difference in the results that you'll see from block training compared to random training. And there was a study done on arm movements. Okay. People were using different arm movements. And essentially what this study did is they. They gave people different arm movements to try. And the goal Was to do it in the least amount of time possible. So they took the two groups, broke them up, and one group only did block practice. Okay, so they just went through the arm movements. There was no sort of. There was no changes in their training. They just did the exact thing they had to do, and there was no thought behind it. They just did it every day. And then the random group would. Had to switch up so there'd be different variables involved with it. And it was not. It was. It was more difficult because they had to adjust to more things, make more. They had to plan differently for things. And the thing that they saw is that in practice, so they had however long both groups got to practice before the test, the block group performed better than the random group in practice. So they steadily saw improvement every single day from that block group. Meanwhile, the random group was all over the place. They were sporadic. One day would be better, next day, it would be a little worse, next day, next they'd be a little better. There was not a sort of consistent. In practice, There was not a consistent improvement because their practices were more difficult. And so at the end of the practice time, however long, however many days they got to practice, the block group looked significantly better and has significantly lower times than the random group did. But then what they did is they took the transfer test. So again, going back to the word transfer, Getting those skills to transfer into the actual test, and they found that when they hit that block group with different. When they hit that block group with different variables, Their times dropped off significantly. In fact, the random group had a 40% better time than the block group did in practice. So they went from. If you would have looked at those practices that week, you, would have seen that the block group looked way better. And you would have thought, oh, wow, this looks like this block group, like, their times are better. They're going to do better when the test comes. But what they didn't account for is the fact that that block group never had to make any reads. They never had to make any decisions. All they had to do was just do the technique. And meanwhile, the other group had to work on all three aspects of skill acquisition. And because of that, when they actually had to make reads and make adjustments in the actual competition, they were able to perform better. Okay, so. And there's countless things like that. There was another study they did in baseball where they took. They took two groups for six weeks of batting practice, and the block group outperformed that random group during practice. Again, you know, like we just said in the previous study. And what they saw is that during the test, the random group did twice as good as twice as well as the. The block group did. So again, in practice, we saw that the block group looked better, right? They were hitting, they had a higher batting percentage in practice when they knew what pitch was coming. And it was the same thing every single time. There was no sort of vary. There was no variation. They didn't have to make any reads. They knew what was coming. And obviously their, their, their scores, their. Their batting percentage was, was higher. That random group didn't have quite as good a percentage in practice because they had to make different reads. Pitches were different. It wasn't the same. But when the actual test came it and things were different, the random group did significantly better than the block group did. Okay, and then there was another study relating back to basketball where they did the same exact thing with players and they just charted average makes and average misses. And it was the same thing. The block group did better during. The block group did better during the actual practice time that they had, and the random group didn't do as well. Then they got to the test and the random group did almost twice as well as the block group did despite having lower scores the entire practice time. Okay, so the moral of this is that chaotic training situations promote retention. That's another key word you need to understand. Okay, Retention. What is that? Retention is your ability to take the skills that you work on in practice and, and have them actually show up in games. Your ability to retain the information that you work on, retain the abilities and the skills you work on so that they actually show up in games. Okay, so that means that what we're seeing is that retention, meaning the actual skills you can use in games are higher when you use block training as opposed to. Or when you use random training as opposed to block training. And, and that's a very interesting thing to see because this goes against what a lot of players and a lot of coaches, too, fall victim to, which is they want to look good in practice. You know, a lot of coaches and players don't do this because when you do block training, you know, when you go to the gym every day and you do the same exact thing and there's no variation in it, and there's no reads you have to make. You will get, you will see yourself getting better at it. Every time you do it, right, every day is going to get better because you're doing the same exact thing. And that's just how it works. You're going to get better at it, okay? It's measurable. You can see it when you add random training into the mix. There's going to be days where you do not look as good. There's going to be days where you look bad, okay? Because something new is going to come at you. You're going to make a different read that you're not used to, and you're going to look worse because of it. You might play worse that day, okay? But in the long term, your ability to actually make reads, your ability to plan and then do, your ability to face different problems and solve them, That's a key part of actually playing in games, right? Being able to see a different problem and then being able to actually solve it. Okay? And that's what you get from random practice. You know, there's a. There's, you know, that's. The question is, why is there an out? Why is there a difference in the outcomes between these two practices? Two players can practice the same exact amount of time. But. But one does it with block, one does it with random. Why is there such a big difference? And again, these studies show, like, it was not a small difference. It was not, you know, they were 5%. No, it was like 40% better. Two times as, like 200% better. Like, literally, that was the, that was the differences that we. That we would see. And the, The. The thing is, in, in the game, in games you play, there are net. There will never be two plays that are exactly the same. They might be very, very similar, but they will never be exactly the same. There'll be some read that's different. There'll be some action that happens that's different. There is never going to be a time in your career and your entire life you're gonna play two basketball players that are the exact same. Okay? So if your training is only promoting plays that are the same, well, how is that gonna work when you know you're not gonna see the same play twice in a game? You're gonna have to make different reads in different situations the entire game. That's why I said one of the biggest parts of retention is you being able to see a problem, a new problem, and solve it. That in itself is something that you need to be able to develop is your ability to say, okay, you know what? I haven't seen this problem before, but guess what? In practice, I have to solve new problems all the time. And now you can do that at a much higher rate and much more efficiently than someone who has, who has never had to work on that before. Okay? So A lot of players don't see their practice transfer into games because they, when they, the, the. I guess the saying that you can use, right, is you don't. You don't you, you play basketball, right? You know, when you, when you say, you know, when you talk to your friends or, you know, when you talk to your, your mom or your dad, you're like, hey, where you going? Like, oh, I'm going to the park to play basketball. Right? I'm going to the gym to play basketball. You don't tell them, you know, I'm going to drill basketball. Because you don't drill basketball. You know, when you're going to play a game, you play basketball. You don't, you don't go to drill basketball. Okay, well, we don't work to get better at drills. We work to get better at games. Right? That's the fun part of being able to take what we've worked on and then see it pay off in the games. Okay. So that all of a sudden means that our approach to our training needs to facilitate that. Okay. What we can't have is we can't have our training only focus on one part of that skull position because that's going to leave you significantly, significantly under prepared when you actually get into games. And this is a big, a big problem that players see. So what does that mean for you? Like, what do you need to do to actually, to actually see that happen? Well, you know, the first thing I'll say is that you have to make sure that you switch up your training. Okay. And there's a bunch of aspects. We can go with that. Again, I want to make something very clear. You need to also have block training. There is nothing wrong with shooting five shots, five spots. There is nothing wrong with that to work on your technique. Absolutely nothing. And you know something that we're going to get into in a minute is FIBA did another study on skill acquisition, which I thought was very, very interesting too. And, but the first thing is that you know, when you're doing your. To make your practices more random, you need to add in reads to these things. So the easiest way to do this is to take your skills. And this is a big thing players will ask me, coach, how do I get a better basketball iq? And there are a lot of things I can tell them. There's a lot of things that you can do. You can watch more film. You can actually learn what reads you're supposed to make. And that's important. Okay. I have a whole, my whole 20 points for game blueprint is built around that. Okay? It's very important. And I post videos on basketball IQ all the time, film breakdowns, all these things. But at the end of the day, if you want those things to transfer, you need to play. You need to play more basketball. One on one, three on three, five on five. You need to play more basketball. And that's how you start to incorporate this random practice. So obviously, the first thing is that if you are able to work out with a group of people or you are a trainer who can simulate defense for you, put you in different situations to make reads, that obviously is going to be very, very beneficial for you. This is how I conduct my sessions. Obviously, we're going to work on block skills. We're going to shoot a lot. We're going to do some, maybe some stationary ball handling, but we're also going to work on making different reads. So maybe there'll be a time where we're going to go into a float dribble, and then I'm going to play you a certain way, and you've got to build a read and you got to say, okay, am I going to shoot it off this float? Does it give me enough space to shoot? Or am I going to go between my legs and go the other way? Or is he not playing me to the side? I'm floating to. I'm going to explode by and get to the basket. Okay, maybe we're going to play off a ball screen. So you, you know, you're going to come off a ball screen. You got to read the help defense. Am I stepping up and you're going to be able to blow by me? Am I leaving you space so you can pull up right there? So you being able to work with somebody that can do that for you is going to really help you. But I understand not every player has that luxury, right? Especially right now with everything going on. So how can you then start to get those situations? Two things again, like I just said, first and best, most crucial piece is you need to make sure that you are. You're playing. You got to play more basketball. Okay? You need to do the drills, but you need to play. Because one thing that I, that I experienced in my own game is I was always a worker. I. There's never been like, there were there. There was never a team I played on where I was not. I did not. There was people who put in more time than me. Okay? There just wasn't. And the difference was that I didn't put enough. I didn't put a value on playing, okay? So I didn't even really start putting value on until I was probably a senior in high school. So all before then I was all drills, drills, drills, drills, drills. Which again is great, you need drills. But if you don't learn how to apply those skills in a games, then, then it doesn't matter if. Because you're only gonna have one third of, again you're looking to have one third of that of those actual skills the, the, the reading and planning you're going to miss out on. So what you need to do is play more one on one with your friends, okay? Even right now I understand we can't, A lot of, a lot of you guys can't get into a gym right now and a lot of you guys can't have any sort of team practices. That's understandable. If you have a teammate who you know, lives in your neighborhood or you got a friend who plays basketball, play one on one, okay? You know, just, just. And also what you can do is think of different situations you might be in in a game. So maybe you're playing one on one and you decide, okay, we're going to do all from the wing. You have to pass the ball on defense. So you start on defense under the basket, you got to pass the ball to the guy in the wing and then close out and then you play one on one. You get, you get four dribbles to score. That's a game like situation. And you're going to have to make reads and you're going to have to actually learn how to use those techniques in the context of an actual competition. Because guess what? Just like I said, no play in a game of basketball is the same. No play in one on one is ever the same. So you have to develop that ability to make those reads, to see problems, to face new problems and then find solutions for those problems, okay? So I can't, I cannot, cannot overstate how crucial it is that you play more basketball, okay? If you, if you don't feel confident, your basketball IQ right now, play more basketball. If you don't feel confident in your ability to have your skills transferred to games, play more basketball, okay? And the one thing that I'll add to that is that once we get into five on five, two, that's another crucial area for you to be able to do that, okay? Play more five on five, play more pickup, okay? Just where you just going, you're just, you're just hooping, you're able to mess up, you're able to make mistakes, you're able to understand. Okay, how do I need to actually do this in a game? Okay. Because all you guys know practice is not like a game. You can do a skill in games or you can do a skill in practice and it can look completely different in a game. And actually where I did a lot of my research was from a company called trainugly. That was where I got a lot of this research from. And I love that name, though, trainugly. Okay. Because again, a lot of players and coaches want to look good in practice. They want to get all the Instagram videos, right? Oh, you guys see I'm on Instagram posting these videos of me doing all these cool moves and with no defense out there. Like, I, that's, that's cool. Okay. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not dissing that again. I kind of got in this last week. That, that has its place. But also, if, if your only concern is looking good in practice, you're going to look bad in games. I'm sorry, that's, that's how it is. If your only concern is that, that you want to look good in practice, that you want your training to look good, that you want, you want to look cool when you practice, you're not going to be a very good player, okay? And maybe naturally you'll get by, but eventually get to a point where you won't, you won't be able to compete because people aren't. Don't have that, that insecurity of looking bad, okay? You've got to get over that. If that's your problem right now, if you can't, if you can't work on things that you're bad at, then you got to get over that. If you actually want to be, if you actually are serious about playing basketball, like there just can't be any sort of insecurity about looking bad. And I understand this is the thing, and I know FEBA did a study on this where they looked at teaching new skills to players and how essentially the reaction that you get is going to be different in bigger groups. So if you're in a gym with a lot of people and you're learning a new thing, it's a lot easier to get self conscious. And a lot of times players aren't going to perform it as well as if they're in a gym with just a trainer that they know or just a couple other guys or by themselves. So I understand that that's working against you, but you've got to make that mindset shift. To say, like, you know what? I don't care if I look bad right now. Practice. It's okay to look bad. If you guys ever are tuned into my live workouts, which, by the way, if you're not tuning into my live workouts, you need to do that. Make sure you follow me on Instagram. I always post a day before I go live. And, you know, if you talk to the guys who do my live workouts, it's great. Like, I'm not trying to brag. They're great, though. Okay? So make sure you guys are in those. They're on YouTube. Okay? So I go live on YouTube twice a week, usually on a Wednesday. I usually go every Wednesday evening. And then I'll go either Saturday or Sunday, usually Sunday, depending on the week. But again, if you follow me on Instagram, I always let you know about that and make sure if you're on YouTube, put my notifications on, too, so that you know exactly when I go live. Okay, but what. What we were, you know, kind of what. What we were focusing on is. Is again, making sure that, you know, you're. I always stress, like, guys, now is the time to mess up. I always stress it. I'm like, guys, if you don't lose the ball while we're doing this, you are not going hard enough. You're not going to be getting as good as you could because you're. You don't want to look bad. Please mess it up. I. If you. If you get on those live workouts, you'll watch me mess it up so many times. I'll lose the ball so many times because I'm pushing myself and I want. If I'm going to tell you guys to do that, I'm going to do the same exact thing. I don't care if I look bad. I don't care if you guys think I'm terrible because I lose the ball. Doesn't matter to me. All that matters is getting better. How you look doesn't matter. The results matter. You being able to say that you, you know, you winning at the end of the day, your record that your team has, you know, the points you score, that's what. That's what exists. You looking bad for a few practices every practice, maybe you looking bad during that. No one cares about that. You know, maybe someone make fun of you at first, but when they see you performing in games, that's what they're going to focus on, okay? So stop worrying about how you look in practice. Okay? Stop trying to look cool and practiced. Stop Trying to look good. Stop being afraid of looking bad. Start wanting to look bad again. That's why I said, I love that name. Train Ugly. That's just an awesome name right there. Train Ugly. Okay. Train in a way that's going to push you, that's going to make it hard on you, so that when you get into games a lot easier. So, you know, that's a big thing for me, and I kind of wanted to transition into more of that, but again, just kind of to get back into a couple more things. So if you can't. So, okay, we talked about one on one, five on five, three on three, play more basketball, two on two. I don't care what it is. Get in more situations where it's not controlled. Okay. A controlled environment is not going to be the most beneficial to your growth. Okay. Controlled where all the variables are controlled. The same reads are there every time. You don't have to make any decisions. Random, chaotic environments are going to be much better for you, which is what you get in the context of playing. 1 on 1, 2 on 2, 3 on 3, 4 on 4, 5 on 5. Those live situations we're going to do, which in the perimeter score system, we have live days for that exact reason, so that you actually learn how to play basketball. Okay. Because we're working on our drills. Your technique is getting better, but we also need to make sure we work on the first two steps. We got to be able to read, we got to be able to plan, and then we got to be able to do. And when we have those skills that we work on, we can do. But we got to make sure we get those first two steps, because when we have those down, all that we're gonna have to do is execute, and we can do that. Okay? So very, very important. But let's say that, you know, you want it. You want to. Maybe you don't have a trainer. Okay. Maybe you don't work out with anybody. What else can you do to make your training more. More of a. What you do to make it more random? Well, I think one of the best things you can do is have different series of drills that you do. So essentially what I would do is, is let's say you want to work on your jab step, right? Maybe you work on your jab step, and instead of just going jab step into a one drill, pull up every time, maybe you go jab step, and then you go into one drill, pull up five times. Then you go jab step into a, you know, between. Or maybe jazzle one dribble between attack the basket. Maybe you go jab, maybe you go double jab into a attack the basket. You're switching up the skills you do out of that. And I think that in itself being able to kind of have a well rounded game as opposed to you just working on one specific aspect. It's gonna be big and kind of to add on to that, being able to add creative drills to your, to your training. So this is especially something that you need to think about in with ball handling. What. And I love doing this where you essentially just like kind of freestyle dribble. So this might be, you know, you take like the, I call this joke kill the grass where you'll go in like the semicircle between the free throw line and the top of the key, the three point line, that little half circle in there. And you just like freestyle dribble. You just do a bunch of different dribble moves trying to work around the that area, work on different sorts of moves where you just, you're just playing, right? You're just working on being able to float between behind same hands between the legs, like just doing different moves that you might not be comfortable with. And that itself is going to help to spark your creativity. Because in games if you're able to creative then that's going to help you to make those reads and be able to adjust. Again, when you have a problem that is presented to you, you can solve it quickly and therefore get those results and positive results. Because again, your ability to solve problems is a big thing. And part of being able to solve problems on the fly again every play is different is your ability to be creative and understanding that it's not going to be perfect every time. That's kind of the big thing is your training. It can't be perfect. It can't always be perfect. Okay, again, there's going to be times where it is going to do some block practice. That's fine. But you need to make sure you're also training to in environments that are not perfect, that are imperfect because your moves you're going to pull off aren't going to be as clean in games. Okay. Your step backs in practice are going to be more clean than the step backs you hit in games for the most part is how it's going to be okay. And also start to approach that 1 on 1, 3 on 3, 5 on 5. Approach that as practice. Okay? You're not like when you're playing pickup, that's practice for you. That, that in itself is just as your, as your skills training is, as you go into working your three point shooting, you go into play pickup. That's practice right there, okay? So you cannot ignore that. You need to make sure that you have your, your drills you do, but also play. Okay, I can leave you with one thing. Today, it's play more basketball. One on one. I don't care. Play more basketball. Put yourself in situations where you have to make reads, you have to react to different things. That is going to help you become a better basketball player and that's going to help you actually see those skills. You'll be able to acquire those skills because you have to work on your ability to read, plan and do. Okay, so there was also a study, you know, I want to get to real quickly about FEBA and what they did essentially was that they took, you know, what are the steps to developing skills. So you know, you want to take your skills and you want to become, you want to improve them. So you want to become a better shooter. Okay, how do you do that? What are the steps to it? Or actually instead of this, let's take a move you want to learn. So let's say you want to learn how to do a punch drag into a wide iris and crossover. So you're going to go punch drag, wide crossover, shift your guy to the side, be able to pull up, go to the rim, whatever. The first step to that is coordination. So you just being able to take it, do it, get the footwork down, do it slow maybe and, and then transition to a point where you can do it at full speed, but you might not be able to dribble up to it. You might have to go right into it. You probably can't make any sort of counter moves off of it, but you're able to have the footwork down and you can do it. Okay, that's step number one. So when you want to learn something new or get better at something, make sure you have that first part down. Number two would be control. So now you're able to do this again at a faster speed. You might be able to do it at different situations where maybe you're doing it on the left wing now and the right wing. Maybe you can do it with both hands now. That's how you develop the actual control. You can use this move now. That's step two. And then step three would be the actual skill part of it. This is going to relate back to what we're just talking about. But now all of a sudden, if you want to actually have that considered A skill. You're able to read the defense and then do it. You're able to know when to pull this out. And there can be a bunch of variables that are different, that can change, and you can still effectively do this move. So maybe you're able to do the move before where there was no defense and then you had a defender and you can't do it. It means you're not at the skill point yet. You're still probably the control. The control phase. Okay, but once you're able to do it with a defender on you, now all of a sudden you're at the skill phase. And then you get to a point where you can do it with. With a bunch of different defenders on you. Maybe, maybe you could do it against a guy who's slower than you, but now you can do it against a guy who's. Who's also quick. That. That right there is how you develop those skills. Okay, So I wanted to kind of break that down for you and again leave you with. There's two types of performances in basketball in any sport. There's your practice performance and there's real performance. Okay. Practice performance is how you look in practice. So when you go to the gym, you shoot 70% from three. When you just do your spot shooting around the basket with no defense, with no reads to make, that's your practice performance. And you'll notice like, if you watch a guy like, you know, there. There are videos of Steph Curry shooting the basketball in. In practice where he will literally go, like, I think there's a video where he made like 94 out of 100 or something like that. I think that was the number. It was. It regardless. It was a ridiculous number. Okay. Steph Curry had. There's never been a stretch of his career where He's. He's made 94 out of 100 in a game. Like in a stretch of games. Never. Not. I don't. I would like to know what his highest. Well, that highest number would be. I could see it being like in the 60s maybe, but. But again, he's a career, I think, 45% shooter from three. So there's a drop off where he goes from 94% in practice to 45% in games. But that's going to happen. Okay. Your real performance won't be as good, which is why you need to make sure you're doing random practices, because you need to adjust for that. That video of STEPH Shooting that 94 out of 100, that was block practice at its finest, right there. There was no defense, there was no reads to make. It was just catch the ball, shoot, move a little bit, catch the ball, shoot. Okay, shoot a couple, a couple shots, move to the next spot. It was just rep, rep, rep, rep, which again, I'm telling you guys, you need block practice. Okay? Don't, don't skip it. But that, that, that is not. Obviously you get into a game, he's got a defender on him, he's coming off of screens, he's coming off of pin downs, off the dribble. There's different variations he has to adjust to now. So his percentage is going to go down. I'm sure when Steph Curry works on his actual random practice, where he has come off screens, where he's got defenders coming at him, where he has to make different reads of how he's going to shoot, where he's going to shoot, step backs, punch drags behind the back, whatever the move might be. He's not shooting 94% anymore, even if it's practice. He's probably shooting 60, 70% now, maybe less. Okay. But that training is going to be more effective for him when you actually get to the games. And that's why he's able to be the, that's why he's the best shooter of all time. Because he, he's able to hit those shots all out of crazy situations. I mean, we've all seen the shots he's hit. How does he get to that point? Obviously he's a leader, what he does, but he works on those shots. He works on the situations where he has to make reads, he has to know where the defense is. He, he has to hit shots from different angles. Okay. He doesn't make it perfect, I'm sure. And I know, you know, Steph Curry growing up, I know that there was time where his, he literally broke down his shot. I believe he was like 13 or 14 and for an entire summer he completely remade his shot. He didn't shoot outside of the paint for like a whole summer just trying to get his new form down. And once he gets again, that, that, that coordination down, then he gets the control down. Now he can shoot from the three point line, he can shoot from different spots. Okay, that, you work on that for a while, then you get to the point where it's about skill. Now he's able to take those skills that he, that, that, that or take those, that practice he's done and now he can do it with defense on him. He can do it off the dribble, he can do it off of screens, off of, off of pin downs, off of step backs, off of whatever, okay? That's where you get the actual skill part of it. And a big part of that is his training, him approaching it with, okay, I'm going to make sure that I'm not just going to do block training because this is not going to be effective. And if you're questioning why you don't see the results that you think you should see, ask yourself, what does your training look like? Do you do a lot of. Do you just do block practices? Is the majority of yourself block practice? Do you. Have you been ignoring, improving your ability to make reads and then plan? Because again, make, read, make the read, plan what you're going to do and then do it, okay? Make sure your training is going to hit all three of those things. And again, you do that by playing more basketball. Play, play, play, play, play. Massive part of becoming better and at basketball. And that in itself. We talked about retention, that's going to promote retention. You actually retaining those skills and seeing it transfer into games. Okay? And the last thing I'll say about retention is that you need to make sure that. So a lot of guys will work out with a trainer, right? They'll work out once or twice a week with that trainer. And I've seen it myself, where I'll have a guy who I'll work with and work maybe once a week, right? And I'll see them the next week and they'll be like the same as they were the week before. Like, they'll get in the gym, they'll get better as the workout goes along, then they'll go home, do whatever, not, not, not work on their own and they're going to get back the next week and expect to have those results. Transfer. It just, it doesn't work like that. You don't retain it for long enough if you don't consistently do it. Okay? So consistency, making sure the training you do is promoting your decision, your ability to make reads. That is what is going to allow you to become a consistent player on the basketball court. What I wanted to do is answer a couple questions that I got because there was a couple that I thought were really, really good. First question I'm going to answer was from no Limit Noke. And he sent this to me yesterday. He was asking me, he said, hey, coach, what's some advice on being a top player in your own state and becoming the best in your own state? And my answer to this was very, very simple because we talked about this last week. Too. But again, this is another thing I want to talk about. Actually. We talk this all the time. Honestly, this is like a thing, this is like my thing, I guess. But one thing that you need to start to understand and another mindset you need to adopt is that it does not matter what anybody else is doing. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what he's doing on Instagram, doesn't matter what, what he trainer he's working with, what offer he just got, what offer he didn't get. That means nothing. It does not matter who got posts on an overtime. Okay, listen, I, I, I don't want to get into a whole overtime rant. But like at this point, it, yeah, doesn't matter. Balls. Life doesn't matter at all to you. Okay? You might, might be cool. You might like watching the videos. You, whoever gets posted on those channels, no effect on you. If you want to become the best you can be, that is all you need to focus on. That is all you should focus on. And I understand this question and it's a common question that every player has. How do I become the best? But when you think about being the best, that a lot of times means you think about being better than somebody else. You think, how to be, how do I become better than him? If you say I want to be, how do I coach? How do I become the best player in my state? Well, that means you need to be better than this other guy or that other guy. And focusing on that is not what's going to get you to that point. Getting to that point completely has to do with what you do. Okay? So the better question to be asking is, what do I need to do to become the best player I can possibly be? What do I need to do to put myself in a position to maximize my skills? Okay, that, that's the most important question you can ask yourself. And once you do that effectively, that leads into all the other things. So if you have the potential to actually, because listen, there's 50 states in the United States, so that means only 50 players can be the best player in their state. So there's gonna be more than 50 people who watch this video who live in America. That means not every single one of you can be the best player in your state. But if you have that, but if you have the potential to do that, the only way you reach that potential is by focusing on yourself and becoming the best player you can possibly be. So that goes to. How do I do that? Well, identify what your role is. Right? Identify what you need to do well on the basketball court. If you're a guard, you're a point guard. You need to become a great ball handler, a great decision maker and a great shooter. So your training should focus on putting you in a position to develop those three things. Okay? You play more basketball, like I said, you work on your shooting and you work on your ability to handle basketball. Make reads different things like that, you do that at a high level, that's going to put you in a position to be the best player you can be. And then again, if you have the potential, because again, again, not everybody is going to have the potential to be the best player in their state. They won't. Some, some of you may, most of you won't. And, but, but you only will know that when you put the work in. Okay? And again, we talked about this with, with the NBA. It's like there's 450 players in the NBA. So guys will ask me, coach, how do I become an NBA player? And my answer is, my answer is, usually I'll give them skills to work on. I'll tell them, you do this, this, and this. But here's the, here's the thing. There's 450 players and there's 450 million basketball players in the world, okay? So there's 450 spots in the NBA. You might be the 452nd best player in the world, which means that you're better at basketball than everybody else is at anything they will ever do. You're better at basketball than anything they will ever do. And you still might not be in the NBA because you're just two spots too low. That could be how it is. So instead of worrying about that, your question needs to be, how can I be the best player I can possibly be? How can I get to that point? Okay? How can I put myself in a position to even have to have that problem? Okay? If your problem becomes I'm two spots below being in the NBA, that's a whole different problem to worry about. You got to get there first though, okay? You got to get to that point. You know, if you're at a point where people are comparing you in your state, like, oh, who's the best? Is it, is it this kid or that kid? Or is it that kid and people starting to name you, well, then you can worry about that situation. For now, put yourself in a position to be, to even be in that conversation. But by developing your role, your ability to help your team win, the skills that get you on the floor, become elite at those things, okay? So that all goes to. Again, you write down two, three, four things that you need to be great at if you want to maximize your success on the floor. And then focus on those things, okay? And forget about what other people are doing. Forget about all the other stuff that people want you to worry about that doesn't matter to you, that won't affect you. And all that can do, honestly, is distract you, is you start to compare yourself to other people. You're like, man, why am I not there yet? Why am I not where this guy is? But you don't know what that guy does. You don't know the work he puts in. You don't know. All you know is what they choose to show you, okay? So don't fall into that trap. Do the best you can do. Be the best you can be. That's where the real progress and the real success that you want, that's. That's where you're going to find it. Okay? So. So that's. That's a crucial thing for you to understand. And got a couple other questions. And so this is from Marcus, and he said, hey, coach, I'm a smaller point guard, and obviously size has a lot to do with the game. And I watched your video on how to dominate as the undersized point guard. But how can I push through mentally? I guess I'm just saying, how can I mentally push through being undersized? And this is another good question. I think, I think mentally for an undersized player, like, like, I think mental toughness and, and your, the mindset you. You have is so important. You can get away with being kind of mentally weak if you're, if you're 7ft tall and athletic. Like, you can get away with being kind of soft if you're undersized, especially as a guard at any position, if you're undersized. But if you're a. If you're an undersized point guard like you, you can't be soft because here's the thing, people already are going to expect you to not be able to compete. And you know, to me, I, I know a lot of guys who are undersized and, and because of that, literally, they just get. They get disrespected by everybody. There's some guys I know who are undersized guards who, if they were. If they were five or six inches taller, they'd be. They'd be. One of those guys would be able to talk about being best in the state at their class. Like there's, there's some guys I know like that and, but because they're undersized, they don't get that, you know, they don't get that recognition, okay? So they really have to, they really have to be elite to get those sort of things. So I think that approach, I think the undersized guards I know who are really, really good and really, really effective, those guys, they just, they approach their work. So they, it's, they're so serious about it. And, and they're, they're, they're, they are not willing to cut corners on things, okay? They do things the right way. They put in work and everyone talks about, you have to outwork people, but if you're undersized, you really have to do that. Like, you really need to be the guy who's in the gym all the time. You really need to be the guy who's studying the game all the time. You can't have any weaknesses because guess what? Your height is already your weakness. I want to, I want to. I'll preface that. There are benefits to you being small, but there's also downsides to it. Defensively, you're going to struggle most of the time. Now there's some guys who overcome that. Chris Paul is a solid defender, but a lot of times small guards, even you look at a guy like Isaiah Thomas was the worst defender in the NBA statistically when he plays. And that's, that's a lot of times the case with smaller guards just because it's harder for them to, to be able to defend bigger guys who can handle the ball, who can shoot. Just with your pure size, you can get posted up. And so you need to make sure that your, your size already is what people are going to consider your weakness. Any coach who sees you play is going to say, he's small. So you have to make sure that there are no other weaknesses. You've got to be a great ball handler, elite ball handler. You've got to be an elite shooter and you've got to be an elite decision maker, leader. You've got to be a guy who really puts the, like, really puts everything on your shoulders so that you can handle that sort of weight, okay? Because again, you don't have the luxury of being seven feet tall where people are going to overlook you. You might, you know, they might overlook your lack of work ethic or they might overlook your lack of caring or your lack of whatever, okay? Your lack of athleticism or your lack of decision making, okay? That stuff might get overlooked if you have physical gifts. If you don't have that, then you've got to maximize what you do have and the skills that you actually can apply. And again, the best guys I know and that, that you watch who are undersized do that. I mean, look at a guy like Chris Paul. I mean, one of the most intense dudes in the NBA where it's just like, that's a guy who, who is, he's a leader. I mean, he's one of those guys who just, you know, you know those guards who just sort of have a presence about them when you, even when you just watch them play on tv, like they're like, yeah, like that guy just carries himself differently. Chris Paul's a guy like that, okay? Isaiah Thomas with the Celtics was like that, right when he was on the court, it was just different. And you, you could see guys look to him because he was like, he was their guy. Okay? So, so that to me is just an important thing. Really, really committing yourself to, to the work. And something that I, I talk about is, is being, being, becoming obsessed with, with getting to where you want to get to. I just think when you have something that, that is, people are going to look at, to look down on you on. You've got to, you've got to do everything you can to overcome that, okay? And the guys who, the, the guys who are the most obsessed with the game of basketball, who are obsessed with getting better, obsessed with, with, with getting in the gym and working, those are the guys who, who, who succeed because they, they have that drive to do it. Okay? Because if there's any doubt in your mind as an underside guy, it just won't work out for you. That's the other thing too. The best undersized point guards are just super confident themselves. Like, there is no doubt. Okay? I'll watch guys who are undersized, who have no business doing what they do on the floor at their size. Just kill people. Just kill people. And I'm like that, that should never happen. You should, you shouldn't be able to score in the paint against a guy who's 6, 7 when you're, you know, 5, 9. It just shouldn't happen. Right? But they're, they're so confident in their abilities and their skills that there's no doubt. That's why they carry themselves differently. That's why you carry a guy like Chris Paul. Chris Paul knows he's going to get his. He knows no one's going to stop him coming off ball screens. No one's going to he knows who he's going to get, what he wants to get. It doesn't matter how big the guy is, okay? That's the approach. They do not care how big their opponent is. They don't care if they're the smallest guy on the floor because they already know that they are, and they only care. And this kind of goes back to what I was saying before is they only care about being the best they can be. And if they put the time in, they put the work in. That's what they know. And because of that, they're going to do what they do well. Now, the other thing about being an undersized guard is you want to make sure you play to your strengths, okay? So like I said, if you want to actually be successful as an undersized guy, you've got to be able to shoot the basketball. And if you can do that, even if you're a little undersized, you're. You're going to demand respect from the defense at least, okay? And that's going to open up the floor for everybody else. So here's the thing. If you're undersized and you can't shoot, it's just. There's not going to be a spot for you. There won't be. Not in today's basket, not in any area of basketball, but especially not today, okay? So you want to be able to shoot the basketball, handle the basketball. Do those things as often as you can to become great at them. Stick to what you do best, essentially, is what I would say. But let's also talk the upsides to being small, okay? Because it's not. There's not. It's not just a weakness. I think a lot of people look at it as a weakness off the bat because obviously height is helpful in basketball, but it's not everything. You know, a lot of times smaller guards can. They can. They can get. They can get through spaces that a bigger guy might not be able to. So, for example, if you are. Let's say you're a guard and you're playing in the. In the pick and roll, right? So you come off of a ball screen and that. That big guy tries to hedge you, right? A bigger guard, a bigger guard might not be able to get low enough to turn that corner and get through that hedge or split it or whatever to get low. If you got a big guy out there and you're small and you're able to split and get low, that. That guy, he's not stopping. You're. You're getting to the basket, you're at least getting to the paint. And then you could kick out or maybe hit that pull up floater, jump shot or layup at the rim. That's open like you, you have the ability to really be, get, get through spaces that guys might not be able to get to. And I think that's a massively underlooked part of being undersized. There's just, it's harder for people to stop you because, you know, like they say in football all the time, low man wins. But it's the same thing in basketball, right? If you can get low when you're driving it, the guy who's higher up, all he can do to stop you, unless he's a freak athlete and is he's going to have to grab you, he's going to have to foul you, he's going to hand check you. And especially when you're small, you're going to get more calls like that. I find that to be when I see small guards play, like they're just going to get more calls and so there's upsides to it. But press into that if you know that you're going to be able to do that. Like be confident about it. Okay. I think that's what, when we talk about mindset of an undersized guy, you've got to have elite level confidence and developing that confidence. It all starts with, you know, confidence comes from overcoming situations, overcoming problems that you have. Okay, so we talked earlier about in this podcast about, you know, being able to read a situation, plan what you're going to do and then do it. Games are all about new problems that you find and being able to solve them. Point guys who are confident have, have gone through so many problems and solved all like solved them consistently to, to a point where like they feel like, I don't really care what comes at me. I know I can get through it. I know I can get over it. I know I'm going to get out and get mine. I don't care how the defense guards me. I don't care who's on me. I don't care what people say about whatever. I know I can get mine here. I know I can do this. I know I can go to this. I know I have this ability to do this. And they carry that confidence with them. That's the biggest thing for you. Okay. There can be no question marks about that. So if you don't have that, that's what you got to get. Okay. That comes from, again, building those skills up so become a great shooter, but great ball handler. Have that ball on a string, put the time into that, and then become great at playing. Okay? Working on your one on one, three on three, five on five, those things in tandem together. That's how you become that elite, confident, undersized guard. And you know, here's the thing in basketball today, like, you can be undersized, okay? And as long as you have the ability to shoot and make good decisions, I mean, you, there's really, there's really not anything anyone can say to you. Okay? And. But that's what I'd say kind of regarding that, I think you, you being focused on, on becoming, on doing that as an underside of the guard. I think that's really going to help you out. So, real quick before, you know, we wrap up, you know, I get a ton of questions about my NBA player workouts. And one thing that I'll say about that is, is first of all, like, shout out to everyone who gives me requests for those. Because I get, I mean, I get so many requests. Crazy. I mean, I've got 50 guys I gotta get to, so. But keep on dropping guys you want me to see. You know, the more requests I get for a certain player, usually that's that terms when I actually get to that guy. So you know that that's kind of a thing. So understand that. Also I get questions about, like, coach, how should I actually structure doing these? Like, if I want, do I do the same workout every day? Should I do two workouts a day? Should I do a different player every single day? Like, what should I do to actually get the most out of using these workouts? And what I would say, and my response to that always is what I recommend is that you take between three or four NBA workouts that you like. So maybe you like the Dame workout, you like the Steph workout, Kyrie and Trae Young. Those are your four favorites. So you take those four and you just rotate through them. So Monday is Dame Tuesday, Steph Wednesday, Kyrie, Thursday is Tret. Like, you just rotate through those. Maybe you only pick three. Maybe you pick the Luka one, you pick Paul George and then LeBron. Those are your three that you like and you rotate through those. Okay? So. And the reason for that is that you're able to hit different, different skills. And what I love about these player workouts is that they, they, they really simulate game actions, which is what, which is my, sort of my, my whole purpose for them. Because I've, I've had people ask me before like coaching, you add some like ball handling drills into these or like some, some other like specific skill drills. But to me, like I, I post videos with that stuff all the time. Like I have videos that will help you with your ball handling to do like stationary stuff, moving stuff, whatever. Finishing workouts. Another finishing work coming this week actually. So stay tuned for that. And shooting workouts. Of course. I have all those things. The purpose of my NBA workouts though is I want you guys to get better at actually playing and using game actions. Okay? So being able to go and combine different things. Being able to combine a punch drag into a crossover, being able to go from a shot fake to a two dribble step back, being able to hit shots coming off of people pin downs or off of, you know, relocations or off of a jab step. Different, different actual game scenarios. Okay. And that's what you see in all these workouts. I'll have the clip of them actually doing it in the game so you see the situation that they actually apply that, those, that, that, that, that drill in. Right. And that's how I get the, the inspiration for all of that. So that's why I don't do any sort of like you know, two ball pounds or, or you know, one ball crossover repeats or whatever. Like I just get to form shooting into the workout. Okay. And so you know, when it comes to picking workouts, this is another player, another thing I get is a coach. What worker should I do? And my thing is like, like I said before, you can just do workouts you like. If you, if you watch a workout, you really like it, you think that it's cool, like you like the drills in it or you like to play or whatever you can, you can pick those, you know, three or four that you like the most. And, but, but if you know you want to be what's going to help me the most. Well, look at those workouts and, and think about who, which of those players plays, plays the most like you. Okay. Who has a similar role to you and what situations do you find yourself in. So if you, if you're watching a workout and there's a lot of stuff from the wing or the corner, maybe you know that you get a lot of shots, a lot of opportunities in the wing, the corner, in games. So maybe you decide that you're going to do that workout because you're in that same situation a lot of, and it can be the same thing when it comes to maybe you are a point guard. So you're gonna do a lot of stuff off ball screen. So you're gonna do the Chris Paul workout because there's a lot of ball screen stuff in that one. So, you know, ask yourself, what skills do I need to work on? What situations do I find myself in in games? And then pick three or four workouts that you. That, that, that are going to mimic the situations so you can get better at them. Okay. And then also don't feel the need to have to stick to that if you decide, like if I post a new workout, for example, and you decide you want to do that one instead, cool. Put that one in there, maybe take out another one, whatever. Like you can feel free to switch that up. Okay. At the end of the day though, you want to be able to get those reps in. So that's why I said don't pick, don't pick 10 workouts to go through because then you're only doing a workout one time every two weeks, right? Maybe once every week and a half if you're lucky, or twice every week and a half if you're lucky. But you know, you doing it three or four times, like three or four workouts, meaning you're gonna get it in probably twice a week, which is, which is great because that means you're be able to get in those reps while also getting more variation. Okay? So you can work on different situations, different skills, but you're also getting enough reps in that you see improvement. Okay. And you continue that over a sustained amount of time and you'll see, you'll see yourself getting better at that and getting better at those situations. And you know, one of the big reasons why I decided to, to have all these workouts be just game shot focused is because for me, I think one of the biggest keys was I had to, I had to work on more of those game situations in practice. Like I, because again, like I said, I was, I was always a worker where I'd shoot those spot shots, I'd work on my stationary ball handling. But what I didn't do enough of is actually work on scoring and game situations, okay. Even if we're not playing against a defender right now, even if you're just doing, you know, one on zero, just being able to know, like, okay, I can go to this move, I can do these, this combo move, then go into a pull up or into a step back into inverted drag, whatever it is, okay? That's such an important thing to be able to do. Just, just be able to like, kind of be creative and freestyle things. And these workouts are. That's what I love about them. Because no workouts ever the same. Because every drill is, every situation in the game is different. Right? That's why I said before, there's never a time where there's gonna be two of the same plays. So I'm giving you guys clips of these videos of these guys making these plays before. You'll never see another video exactly like that. So every drill is gonna be a little different, every workout'll be a little different. And that's what I love most about it. Because again, if you can solve problems in games at an efficient rate, you're going to be a really good player. Okay. If you have the skills to do that, the, the technique to do that. Okay. So that, that's the biggest part. So you know, find three or four guys you like or that, that fit your game style and then rotate through those, stick to it and you'll see improvement. So I got a question from Maxwell and it's kind of a long question, but I'm going to read it because I'm. This is, this is a topic that is, is super important and honestly I haven't really talked about it in depth yet, but he asked, so he said, hey. So I've been taking basketball seriously for about a year now. Turning 15 going into my freshman year. Just so, just to get the basketball story, I played basketball nearly eight hours a day in the summer with one break day. So six days a week. And during the season my back started to hurt. Eventually got limited minutes and only played about six minutes a game. By the end of the season I started not being able to participate in practice and couldn't play in games. I don't know that I did anything. My back, because I haven't been able to go to doctors because the months obviously and. But I feel like when my back's still hurting occasionally will cause me to not be able to lift and train. Only focus on the actual skill of basketball. And I feel like my chances of getting attention from scouts across the country would be very difficult when they know about the injury history. If I was a scout and there was a six foot point guard with the injury problems, why would I choose to focus on him over a taller, more lengthy player? I always felt like I could make it pro. I spent a lot of time obviously practicing. I take the time to study film and at least I used to lift in condition frequently. But most of all I was consistent. I also had the mindset of not caring about what others think and only focus on my goals. And dreams. Love that. So I've been expanding my passions over the few months, seeing what I can really do to be successful. So I'm just asking, is it worth spending the 1,000 shots six days a week if my chances are looking slim with injuries? So there's a lot of stuff in this DM I want to break down. But, you know, first of all, the. The thing to understand is, like, I actually went through a similar thing in going into my freshman year of high school, where I missed my first. I missed the first half of the season because of knee pain that I didn't like. We just. The doctors didn't know what it was. Ended up just being, like, growing pains, basically. So. But it was bad enough that I missed half the season because of it. So, you know, understand that, like, you're still growing. And, like, for me, that was a big thing between that, you know, when I was, like, going, you know, 14 to 15, basically, that was when I was like, I had a lot of doing a lot of growing, so my knees were kind of just adjusting to that. So that's one thing to understand, but that's. Obviously, I'm not. I'm not a doctor, so I don't. Like, I don't. I'm just giving you my personal. My personal experience with that. And. But the real thing I want to get to is the. The way you're working. So here's the thing, and this is a myth that we need to stop. Like, it's just. It's a. It's a problem in. Especially in America. It's a problem everywhere with basketball, but specifically in America with literally everything, is a problem where people think, if I. If I. If I do more work, if I do more, I'm going to get better results. The more I do, the more time I put in, the more I do this, the better results are going to be. That is not always true. And it makes like, it would make sense, right? Like, the more time that you spend working on your skills, the better you're going to be, right? The more time you spend shooting the basketball, the better you're going to be. The thing is that there is diminishing returns. At one point, the mistake players make is that they look at a guy like Kobe, right? Where Kobe might be able to go into the gym three hours before a game and shoot 800 shots and then go out that night and play great, okay? He might be. And then he might be able to go to the gym for two hours after the game and shoot 800 more shots. He might be able to do that. Okay? Not none of you out there, Kobe Bryant, okay? Nobody's Kobe Bryant. There's a lot of NBA guys who can't do that, okay? Kobe Bryant's conditioned himself over years and years to be able to get to a level where he could put in that amount of time and still get results from it. Players, when they, when they see that, they read about Kobe and the work he put in and they think, oh, I got to do that too. That's, that's where you're messing up. Because you're not Kobe. You can't handle that level of work. And that becomes a double edged sword in terms of you need to put in a lot of work, but you need to not overdo it because overdoing it can be just as bad in the situation. Look, a big problem for you might be you're doing so much, you're spending. He said he spent eight hours a day training. I have a video that I made on this before, but I'll go through it again. Don't. Like, if you're spending eight hours a day on a basketball court, you're not, you're probably not getting as, as much better as you could. Like, you're probably not maximizing your time on the court. This whole entire podcast has been about you actually getting results. If you are, if you are spending eight hours on a basketball court, then there is not a chance you can go for 100 game speed the whole time. Not a chance. You might be able to do it for a maximum of two hours, maximum. Okay. Before you're just going to not be able to physically do it anymore. Again, you're not Kobe Bryant. Kobe might be able to do it for four hours straight, okay? He's Kobe. You're not. So stop trying to train like Kobe train the way that's actually going to be effective for you, okay. As a player who's not at that level right now. So what that means is you need to approach your workouts like, I'm going to go hard for an hour. I'm going to go hard for an hour and a half. And listen, if you want to, if you want to do it for. If you want to do multiple sessions where you go in the morning and night, go for an hour and a half in the morning, hour, half at night. That way you can go 100% the whole time. Okay? What the issue becomes is when you spend that much time on a basketball court. First of all, like I just said, you're not going to be getting you're not going to be getting better the way that you could be if you were actually maximizing your skills. Because I'm guessing out of that eight hours, you probably are not spending that much time working on game like situations. You're not working. You're not spending a lot of time working on game speed shots, game speed, ball handling. You just aren't because you just can't, like physically, it's not possible, it's not feasible that you actually are doing that. So what you need to understand is that it's about more than just putting in a ton of work. Okay. There's diminishing returns at some point. Think of it as like there's a. If you have a graph right, where you're going up, the amount of work and the results that you get are going to go, and then eventually the results are going to taper off and eventually to go downhill because of this situation. So we talked about you're working on eight hours a day and then the injuries come along. Well, I'm not saying they're directly related, but it's a good chance that you're spending eight hours in a basketball court. That's not great. It's not great for your knees at all. You'd be better off spending an hour playing basketball, then going to lift later, then going to play another hour of basketball. Like you give your time more your body, more time to recover. You probably have more time to eat better. You probably be able to have more time to stretch and do all these things. Now, he said he does do stretching, which is important. But also stretching is not going to just correct your overtraining. That's probably what this is. In my opinion. From my perspective, it's just overtraining. So look at how you're approaching it and understand that maybe the approach isn't right. Okay, 1,000 shots a day. Here's the thing about that, and this is a huge thing. I see people, oh, I shoot 800 shots a day, 1,000 a day. If you're shooting a thousand shots a day, chances are all you're doing is block training. Okay? So like we talked about that, if all you do is block training, you're not going to be very good. And you might be a great shooter in practice because you shoot a thousand shots a day. When games come around, you're not going to be a great shooter because you don't have to make any reads in practice. And now you actually have to make reads and adjust and do all these different things. You don't have to do before, okay? So you cannot just be the guy who's gonna shoot a thousand shots a day. Instead, why not shoot 200 shots, but have all those shots be game situation shots? To me, that, that, that makes a lot more sense. If I'm working out with somebody, if I'm working on myself. That's what we're doing. We're gonna get 100, we're gonna make. We're getting 200 game situation shots. Where we're making reads, where we're shooting from different areas, different, different zones on the floor. Like, like we're working on a whole bunch of different things, okay? As opposed to just being like, okay, gonna shoot 200 shots from the corner, 200 shots from the wing, 200 from the. And then that's my work over the day. That, that, that shouldn't be, that shouldn't be the case. Okay, so let's just talk about that. In general, we see the downsides to it. Number one, diminishing returns. You said you were playing what, six, six minutes a game, so obviously a thousand shots for you weren't doing too much, right? And number two, you're getting hurt. So we need to stop with this whole, if I work eight hours a day on basketball, I'm gonna become great at it. That's not how it works. And anybody who tells you that is misleading you. Okay? The best way to get better at basketball is to, is to take a dedicated amount of time and go at game speed the entire time to get those game results. Go for an hour and a half, go for 90 minutes, because you can go at full speed the whole time. You can actually get better in that hour and a half than you would that, that, that eight hours. Chances are, out of those eight hours, you're probably wasting seven of those by not going game speed or by doing whatever. You're probably wasting seven hours. Okay? Now you're just on a basketball court for what? For nothing. And that's leading to, to this, to, to the injuries and all the other things that we don't want. Okay? So, so adjust your mindset with that. And, and instead of thinking that you have to be a person who's going to do that, Approach it like that, Approach it like, listen, it's all about maximizing my skills. Not about, I put in eight hours a day. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter how many time you put in, doesn't matter how much how many shots you put up. It matters what you can do in games. That's all that matters. Okay? So that's the first thing. So adjust that. Stop doing the thousand a day. That's a bad thing. But I get questions like this. I'm not trying to single out this guy because he, I mean, he's the only one who. He's not the only one. He's one of the few is to be honest. And I appreciate that because a lot of people aren't honest about that. But the thing I'll say is a lot of people will try and promote them. Working up for eight hours a day is like, oh, like that's, like, that's why I'm, you know, I work for eight hours a day. Like, you know, I really am dedicated to it. You might be. Your focus is in the wrong area though. And this is a trap players fall into is they think that the more time they put in, the better they're going to get. That's just not how it works. Okay? So you need to understand that when we talk about the importance of actually, of actually getting results in games, okay? So adjust the way that you think on that. The other thing is you have to. Again, you're talking about it now. You said, I make sure that I don't care about what people think. I have the mindset of not caring what others think and only focus on my goals and dreams. But you also said before, like, if I was a scout, this is what the scout might think. And I think, but so you gotta stop that. First of all, like you're worrying about what scouts are thinking. And I mean, you're again, you're what, 15? Like that doesn't. What matters right now is you getting, first of getting healthy. Second of all, maximizing your, your abilities. Okay. That's where, that's where everything is going to start from. So you need to approach it in that manner. So kind of again, to recap a thousand shots a day, just, that's just not going to be effective for you. Now if you're able to split up your workouts, maybe you, maybe you work out three times a day. You work out once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once at night. And maybe you, you, you make 300 shots at each workout. Maybe you get 900, 900 makes in a day. That's cool, as long as you're not going for three hours every time. Because it's just not going to. Eventually you're going to get diminishing returns from that. Okay. You need to be able to go at full speed the whole time. Push yourself, be fatigued, make it game like so that it translates over the game, okay? Don't fall in the trap of thinking, I gotta work over eight hours a day. This is not how basketball works. You don't play a basketball game for eight hours. You play it for an hour. So you gotta be able to produce results within that hour. Your training should mimic games and make it harder. That's what the whole, this whole episode's been about. Okay? So understand that it's not always about working harder. It's about working smart and working hard. Because right now you're working hard, but you're not working very smart. And that's going to lead to all these problems down the line. So that's an important thing for you to understand. So, you know, just to recap on today, I know today was kind of a in depth, kind of more scientific, you know, than I usually am, but I thought this was, I thought this was an important topic to talk about, and hopefully you guys found it important as well. So, again, making sure that, you know, you understand that looking good in practice doesn't matter. You want to get better and you want your skills, you want to see retention, all right? You want to see those skills actually be there when you get to the games. Okay? So we do that through having random practice where we have to adjust situations. We have to read, we have to plan and we have to do. And you do that by playing more basketball, Playing more one on one, three on three, five on five, two on two. You can get three of your friends with you to do, you know, if you can get three of your friends with you to play two on two, or you can go, you know, maybe ball screen stuff. So you have, you know, your teammate, he'll set a ball screen. You just play off a ball screen, right? Being able to read that and see how to maneuver that. There's an example of random practice. Okay? You know, if you're playing three on three, maybe you start off with a pass to the wing, screen away and you play off that there's another situation. Random practice. Okay? So hopefully you guys are understanding what I mean by random practice. Again, you need both work on your shooting, work on your ball handling, all that stuff. But also make sure you don't ignore random practice because that's where you can actually see those skills retain and be present when you get to the games. Okay? So have any more questions on this, let me know. As always, guys, send me a DM on Instagram if you have any questions. VisionDriven Basketball also, just follow me on there regardless, because like I said, this shirt coming out on Monday, I'm gonna send you guys tomorrow. Monday, I'm gonna send you guys or I'll post a link for you guys. $20 really will help support the channel. So I'd really appreciate it if you guys would, would check it out. And you know, aside from that, if you're like I said, you're on Apple podcasts, make sure you guys, make sure you subscribe or you subscribe in LibReview to YouTube, like subscribe if you're new. That would be awesome. And I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.