Why I Only Post About Basketball IQ and Shooting Now (The 80/20 Rule Explained)

So I want to talk about some shifts that I've made in my own basketball training content, my whole approach, and how that can help you as a basketball player to be able to make sure that you're focused on the right things. And if you're a coach or a trainer to. To help you kind of give your players inside information and tailor what you do to help them as best you can as well. If you have no idea who I am, my name is Ethan Koza. My main channel is called Vision Driven Basketball. At the time of this, I have about 87,000 subscribers. Somewhere in that range. Started Visionary basel back in 2019. So we're approaching almost six years of me having that channel. And I used to post and talk about everything. Ball handling, finishing, athleticism, footwork. I had a bunch of workouts that I would post all the time. One of the most popular things that I made were the player workouts. So I pick a player. Could be LeBron, could be Chris Paul, could be, you know, Shay goes, Alexander, could be Jason Tatum. And I would make a workout that was kind of tailored around what their game was like, where basically I would take, like, six or seven clips of them, and then I would, like, create a drill based around that clip. And those were huge. And people love those. Players love those. And I still get requests for those almost every single day. But if you've noticed, over the last three to four months, I've actually completely shifted my content and the things that I post and I talk about, and that's for a very specific reason, and I want to get into what that is today. This is the first time that you've watched me on this channel or, you know, if you've seen me before, but you want a refresher. This is like my second channel that I created because I wanted to be able to connect more with you guys and go on deeper dives into topics and talk about things that just don't really fit in on my other channel as much. Right. Everything over there is a little bit shorter sometimes, but usually a little bit shorter, usually a little more visual. I'll have, like, different film breakdowns, and things are more concise, things are more scripted, things are more edited. And on this channel, it's not that things are a little longer. I kind of just have a couple notes here and there, and I kind of just go. I don't really edit anything at all. And so you see all of the, you know, the inside look at what goes on here. So the. If you watch my other channel and you're like, wow, he's incredible at speaking. He never messes up and all that. Like, I actually do mess up a lot in those videos and I edit out a lot and I clip together pauses and different filler words and all that sort of stuff. So on this channel it's a much more raw look at, at what it actually is like to, you know, create these videos. But today I want to talk about a really important point that I think is going to be. It was transformative for me and I think if you understand this as a player or as a coach, that going to help you to get the most out of the time that you put into development. We all have the same amount of time in a day. We all have the same amount of time to get better, right? You might go to the gym and you have two hours to work out for a day. You have seven days a week or six days a week or whatever. And for the most part, every other player out there is working with about the same amount of time. But at the end of the day, the max amount of time you have is 24 hours. So there is nobody who has a time advantage. So the important thing to ask is, is this the best way, way to get the most out of my time? And that was why I made such a big shift in my channel. Like I talked about, I used to talk about everything when it came to basketball development and I would post workouts and I talk about ball handling and I would talk about finishing and I would talk about athleticism and, and all that sort of stuff. Talk about nutrition, whatever. And over the last three, four months, I've pretty much shifted to completely talking about basketball IQ and, and shooting. Those have really been the two things that I've talked about. And ad nauseam with the last. I think that's the right way of using that phrase or the right way of pronounce pronouncing that that phrase. But like I said, no editing. So I'm leave that in there. I've talked about those two things specifically basketball IQ at a like pretty much every single video. And there's a reason for that. And I can kind of give it to you in what's called the Pareto principle, which is also known as the 8020 rule, which just means that 80% of your results come from 20% of your inputs in every area of life. You look at everything that you do, all 100% of the work you put in. And when you really boil it down, 80% of your results from that work came from about 20% of the work that you actually did, and that other 80% was kind of negligible in some ways to getting the outcome that you got. This is important to understand for basketball players because again, we want to maximize the time that you have and the attention that you have to focus on things. And that's why I made this shift. To me, what I've learned over years of working with players, over hundreds, hundreds of players in person and thousands of players online and through my different programs. And you know, I hear from players every single day through YouTube comments and Instagram DMs and you know, just being around the players that I coach with, you know, the AAU team that I'm with and my high school team and the players that I train outside of those things here. So I'm around a lot of players and I see a lot of commonalities and for the most part, a lot of players are struggling with the same problems, right? They want to play with more confidence, they want to be more successful in games, they want to see the work that they put in translate to actual in game success. And they want to find a way to get more, whether it be more, they want to score more points, they want to make more plays, they want to get more playing time, they want to get a bigger role, they want to make it to the next level, they want to get a scholarship. For the most part, players want the same things. And so what I've noticed is that there really is a small set of things you need to focus on in order to get the, the most output. So going back to the Pareto principle idea, I was focused on all this stuff when it came to basketball development. And then I realized that 20% of it is responsible for the majority of the success or lack of that you're going to have. And that 20% is basketball IQ and shooting. If, if you go all in on getting great in those two areas, that is going to be the best bang for your buck. When you have a higher basketball iq, you make better decisions, you create more opportunities, you recognize more opportunities, and so the game feels easier. You're actually able to apply things that you work on and it matters more than anything else. And then when it comes to shooting, it's the most valuable skill in modern basketball. The game is about putting the ball in the basketball. And so those two things right there account for about 80% of the success that you're going to see or not see. And so it's so important that that becomes the focus. And I wanted to Go all in on that. Because while it's the most important thing, especially when it comes to basketball iq, I feel like it's not prioritized that way on social media at all. You get on Instagram or you get on TikTok or you get on YouTube and you look at what is being talked about, what's being posted. It's try this ball handling workout, try this random shooting drill. Do this to fix your form. Try this finishing drill. Look at this dribble move. And that's a lot of what the basketball training space is, is we have all of these, all these technical workouts and all the stuff that to me is very surface level and I wanted to go deeper than that. All like a lot of those skills, a lot of the other skills aren't really going to matter for you. They're going to be negligible in terms of your outcomes. If you don't have the necessary basketball IQ and the necessary shot making ability to be great on the court, you can have great ball handling, you're going to have the most insane skills when it comes to finishing and, and all these dribble combos and whatever. But if you don't have the basketball IQ to apply those things and you don't have the shooting ability to put the ball in the bucket, when you recognize opportunities to do so, it doesn't matter at all. And applying that Pareto principle to what I was doing, I'm like, all right, I need to make a shift here and I need to prioritize basketball IQ because there really isn't a lot of people who are doing this who are putting the emphasis on it that I think it deserves. And I also know being around so many players, when they change the way that they think about the game, when they, when they transform their understanding of what will make me successful in the court, how do I apply the things that I work on? They see way better results than the player who's maybe doing more than them but isn't focusing on the right things. And for me, I wanted to go deeper on the things that matter most, which are basketball IQ and shooting. Now what I've noticed personally is that this is the kind of the unsexy side of the game, right? People don't want to hear, okay, this is what you actually need. They want to be given quick fixes. And I get it because it's like that in every area of life. Everybody wants a quick fix. I want a quick fix with everything as well. But I've realized that there isn't that you either know the game at a high level or you don't. And you either can shoot the ball, and you can shoot the ball in a, in a variety of circumstances consistently, or you can't. And it's way easier to say, okay, I'm going to post this, this, you know, NBA player workout that I know is going to do really, really well. And I know people are going to be like, oh, this is so cool, I'm going to do this the next time I go outside. But then I ask myself, what does that player really want? Like, why are they doing that work? What is the outcome that they're looking for and is that video going to actually help them achieve that thing? And I realize that it's not. Not the way that focusing on basketball IQ and diving into the deep parts of understanding the game, building confidence, building true confidence, building true mental toughness, and then understanding how to actually develop yourself as a shooter. But like, that stuff is a lot more boring sounding. It's a lot more, it requires a lot more thinking as well. But that's the most important thing. And that's why I wanted to double down on it. Despite the fact that there's probably easier ways to go about trying to, you know, boost numbers on social media, boost numbers on YouTube. Right? I want to get to 100,000 subscribers and get the silver play button. Like, I'll be the first to admit that. And I would probably get to it faster if I just kind of went with what's popular and I went with, you know, the things that I know are going to get clicks and I know we're going to get views. But I also started this channel back in 2019 with the main goal of helping players who were like me, players who were in different situations that, you know, they felt like they, they work really hard at this, they put in more time than maybe everybody around them, and they still aren't seeing the success that they want, that they feel like they've earned, that they've deserved because of the amount of work they put in. Because, like, I was. A lot of players don't spend enough time on the right things. And when you really can double down and say, okay, this is the 20% of things that are going to account for the majority of my results. My responsibility is to, to look at those things and make that what I talk about and what I go into. And that's basketball IQ and shooting right there. And that's why it's become a focus of my videos, my content, and why it will be Going forward. And so for me, I think the shift has helped a lot of players to be able to learn some of this stuff and recognize some of these things. You know, when I really focus down and become the person who talks about basketball IQ and talks about developing your understanding of the game, I think it allows me to deliver more value to people because I can be the resource for that, where you can go to my channel and say, okay, I want to have a deeper understanding of the game. I want to learn things that are going to help me to perform better right now. I want to learn things that are going to help me to score more points right now, make more plays right now. I want to learn things are going to help me to become more confident, decisive, and sure of myself on the court. That's what players want, and that's what I think going deep into that allows me to do. And that's kind of what I've been focused on. It allows me to deliver more value, more clarity, and more transformation overall for players. The players who go all in on basketball iq, developing that to a high level and developing their shooting to a high level, those are the players who are going to win at the end of the day, those are the players who are going to see the most results, and they're going to make the fastest progress by cutting out all the other distractions, all the other noise, and saying these two areas are going to be responsible for 80% of my outcomes. So that better mean that I'm spending almost all my time on doing those things right there. And that's what I want my entire channel to scream to everybody who watches. And so I've seen this, the, this, the concept of this. It's been apparent in my programs, the players who have been successful. It's been very apparent in the, the teams that I've been a part of, the players who have been successful there, and the, the kids that I train, the. Whether that be middle school, high school, college, like when you have those two things at a high level, everything becomes easier for you. And that's why I've had to double down on, on doing that. So if you're a player and your goal is like anything that I mentioned, right, you want to score more, you want to create more, you want to be more consistent when it comes to your production on the court. You want to get more opportunities, more playing time, bigger role, you want to earn an opportunity to play at the next level, get a scholarship, all that sort of stuff, understand, there is nothing that's going to impact that more for you than your basketball IQ and understanding of the game and your ability as a shot maker. Those two things are the most important thing. So much like my content kind of has shifted to going deep into those things right there, specifically basketball iq. Make sure that the way that you train, the way that you approach, is prioritizing those two things above everything else. Nothing else matters more than your ability to be elite in both those areas. And that should be a freeing feeling for you because it simplifies it and you don't have to deal with the paralysis by analysis. Well, what should I be doing? What should I be focusing on? If you can say to myself, you can say to yourself, okay, today I made sure that I checked both those boxes and I got better there. You're going to, to succeed long term and you're going to see those results pay off in games way faster. And if you're a trainer, you're a coach, double down on helping them improve their iq, helping them improve their shooting, and everything that, that they do is going to be more successful. And that's how you build players with true confidence and players who win games. And as a, as a coach, as a trainer, you want players who are going to be successful and are going to bring value, value with them wherever they go. So wanted to give a little bit of insight into that right there. This channel is a much different feel than my other channel. Like I said, I'm just kind of, you know, letting it fly. And you know what, when I mess up or I add in, you know, maybe I go on a tangent, which, who knows what this video is going to look like when I watch it back here. But I wanted to be able to give deep dives into things like this. Something's not going to fit on my other channel. So hopefully this gave you some insight and it gave you an, an idea of what my focus is and what your focus should be. Again, if you want to get the most out of the time that you have, and that's what it really takes to separate yourself. It's just we all have the same amount of time. Do you make sure that you're maximizing it by focusing on the highest ROI things, the highest return on investment things? That's basketball iq, that's shooting, and that's where my focus is going to continue to be. So appreciate you for watching. If you have any questions. Like I said, I want this channel to be not just me talking, but answering questions and talking about things that, you know, you guys want to hear me talk about. Maybe more in depth. You have any questions, anything like that, drop it down below. Would love to connect with you. Talk soon. Appreciate for watching. Peace.