Why Shooting Is The Most Important Skill in Basketball

Foreign. Welcome to the Vision Driven Basketball Training Podcast. Appreciate you guys tuning in today. Whether you're an Apple podcast, Spotify or YouTube, make sure if you're on Apple podcasts, scroll down to the bottom of the page and leave a review for me. I'll give you guys a couple seconds to do that. Thank you. If you're on YouTube, make sure you hit that, like, button and subscribe if you're new and, you know, hop into it. So, you know, today, obviously, this whole week has been pretty wild, so I want to address that, which I have talked about a little bit. You know, if you saw on my YouTube and in my Facebook group as well, I talked a little bit about this, but, you know, kind of wanted to elaborate a little bit more on that because obviously that's a massive issue right now, and obviously, you know, it's. It's bigger than basketball. So I feel like that's something that I, you know, I need to address, you know, and then. And then we'll get into. Into today's podcast, which I'm excited to do as well. So, you know, obviously things have been crazy with the whole, you know, the, The. The George. The George Floyd murder and then, you know, all the. The riots, protests and. And all that stuff, which, you know, we can. I don't want that to be about. I don't want this to be about that necessarily, because that's. It's all. It's all, you know, own separate thing right now in terms of what I want to actually talk about. But, you know, obviously this is bringing up so many questions, so many different sides of. Of an argument, which I don't really think there should be an argument for. For this situation right now. But, you know, unfortunately, that's where we are in America. But, you know, I actually had a conversation with. I was. I got a text from one of my friends who's white, and he was like, hey, man, you know, I just been thinking about you praying for your family. Obviously, you know, like, things are crazy and I'll never understand what things are like from your perspective, but, you know, I want you to know that, you know, I'm with you, you know, and I'm here for you. And, you know, I've been praying for you a lot, which I appreciate that a lot. So I had a little bit of a conversation with him about that. And, you know, my kind of. My message to him was like, you know, my. My personal view is that, you know, how I always try to approach things is. Is no matter who you are or where you're from or what you look like, I'm. I'm going to treat you with, with respect and with love. And I think that is, is really the key moving forward. That's what I told him. Like, listen, man, like, that's how I, I approach things. And I appreciate knowing people like you who also approach things the same way as that. You know, obviously we have a societal issue right now, okay? We have a systemic issue in America. And our society or the system is made up of the individuals in our system. So if we're able to change the individual people, then we can change society, we can change the system that we have in place right now. That isn't where we need to be. So I think we can take this massive issue and I think what we can do is we can try. It's not, it's not a simple fix, okay? It's not simple. There's a lot of complex parts to it. But we can do our best to, in our own daily lives, be part of the solution to this. And that was my, basically what I told him. I'm like, you know, and what I'll tell all of you guys, you know, your approach to life should be, any person I meet, I treat them with an equal amount of respect and with love. That's how I approach everybody. And you know, the, the, I think the, the power of doing that is that not only are you going to feel better living throughout your daily life, are you going to obviously be a better person and make the world a better place, but let's focus on that part of making the world a better place. When you act that way towards people, that, that is going to, that, that's powerful enough that a lot of times that's going to cause people to also act the same way back to you, but also to other people. Now, obviously there's people out there who just don't like they're going to be bad people. That will never change. We're always going to have people who don't respond to that. But I think we have a lot of power to be able to do stuff like that. And for a lot of the times, we can really affect the way that other people act just by how we treat them. Right? So it's a ripple effect. You might treat somebody this way, and because of that, they're going to treat the next person they meet that way. So you have the opportunity to actually affect more than just that person, but a lot of people that they might even come in contact with, okay? So understand that and Understand that the way that you interact with people is bigger than just that inner situation. Every time that you meet somebody or you talk to somebody, you have the opportunity to literally change their life. That's how you got to approach things. So understand that. And obviously, you know, going forward, it's kind of. It's bigger than that. That's not the only thing. I'm not saying that's gonna fix everything, but I'm saying we have individuals, right, who make up our society. If we're able to, as individual people, become better, then we can hence make our society, our system better. Okay? So understand that we all have that responsibility to do that. And I think that's important. You know, the other thing is, you know, I was talking about. And this kind of leads into, with basketball. And I know you've seen a lot of these trainers who have really focused heavily on this, this stuff this week. So if you look at, you know, Coleman with by any means basketball, shout out to him doing his, his summit with, with all that, which is awesome. Chris Brickley's been doing a lot of stuff too, as well. I saw a video from Jordan Lawley last night talking to some of his guys, and that, that, that sub's awesome. And I think it really. Basketball is a unique world because, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's very different from a lot of places where you're going to have a unique mixture of people. So, you know, I'll go on to. And I guess a little bit of a side note before I get to that, you know, if you're, and I want to say this as respectfully as possible, but also because I know that I have a lot of kids who fall into this demographic that watch my, that my videos that follow me that are awesome, that are great kids, work hard, do the right thing. So this is not addressed to you. This is addressed to potentially some other people who might fall in the same demographic who don't necessarily understand things. So if you go on to any bleacher report or ESPN or SportsCenter House of Highlights, any post that has to do with anything in this topic talking about racism or, or anything that's been brought up this week, and you go on those posts and you read the comments, it's typically going to be some high school kid talking about, oh, this, this, this, basically trying to act like they know what they're talking about. Here's the thing. If you're in high school, you probably have not had very many life experiences. Chances are. The majority of your experiences have been with people who are very, very similar to you, and you've never actually had to experience anything outside of what you know. Okay, I posted on YouTube, on my. On my community tab this week that I wasn't gonna post a video on Tuesday with the whole Blackout Tuesday thing. And you know, what I. What I. What I had said was that you are. We are. We are naturally limited by what we know and what we've experienced. So we can choose to not allow that to be the case. We can choose to not be limited by that, by being able to listen to other people, to understand that other people have different experiences, that if we are able to learn from, we can actually become better people. We can actually start to know more. We can actually get smarter. You know, you look at a lot of these kids in the. In the comment sections, especially on Instagram. Instagram is just. Just accessible. Honestly, you look at a lot of these kids there, you think that they are Nobel award winners. Like, you think that they would. They're. They're on full rides to, you know, Yale and Harvard. Like, it's. It's crazy. You think that they're just the smartest people and they. They have every. They have life figured out that I. That's not the case, though. I promise you it's not the case. They might feel they have life figured out in this. In the scope of what they see and what they've experienced, which maybe they do, but there is way more to life than what you've probably experienced when you're 16 or 17 years old. And. And I'll. I'll be the first one to tell you that. You know, though, my outlooks when I was that age are a lot different. I'm not even that much older than that, but my outlooks are much different. And being able to look at other people and say, okay, they might have a different experience than me. Maybe what they're saying has validity because I don't know everything. Right? That's how we become better. So I talked about you treating people with respect. That's going to make us better also by being able to listen and understand that you don't know everything. And there's more things that even this week, I've learned things I didn't know. Okay. I've learned about experiences that I didn't know about before. And I'm approaching things the same way with everything. I don't know everything. I don't. I don't know everything about basketball. I learned from so many guys who I think are way better than me. And because of that, because of my willingness to learn, I get better. And I get better at a rate that a lot of people won't because they want to act like I have it all figured out. But you don't. You never will. You always have to constantly try to get better, and you can't do that if you are stuck in a mindset that you know it all. That's how we. How we get better. And again, you know, I don't want to. I'm not trying to call everybody else. I understand it's not just high school kids, and not every high school kid falls into this category. But a lot of the just ignorant comments, A lot of the. A lot of just the. The really, really dumb comments I see on. On Instagram regarding the whole racism thing comes from high school kids who really have no place to talk because they don't. They. They have not experienced any sort of life at all. And so, you know, but. But I say that because the interesting thing about the. The interesting part about basketball is that we. There's so much diversity in the basketball world, which is. Which is great. You know, obviously, if, you know, if you've played basketball, like I play basketball with so many different types of kids, and because of that, I've been able to get like a peek into the world of so many different backgrounds of people. Right. Which a lot of people don't get. Especially, you know, I'm 20 years old. Most people my age have not. Have not met the scope of people that I have just. Just from the game of basketball. You know, I've met kids from. I've met kids from, you know, I play with kids from the hood and I play with kids from, you know, the suburbs and everywhere in between. Okay. On both ends. And because of that, like, I feel like I have a grasp on people and differences that I've seen because I've seen it with my own teammates, right? With the whole, like. Like I've seen kids who just have more. Right. They have to overcome. You know, there are kids who. I still remember I had a teammate who we. You know, I remember I was playing AAU when I was. Man, probably I would have been 16 at the time. And, you know, I had a teammate who we. It was our first or second practice and we ended up. My. My dad and I ended up driving him home. And remember, we took him like it was straight. It was straight into the hood. Like he. He lived in the hood. I remember that. You know, it was one of those situations, we were like, you know, we come back and I think he might have been at one more practice. But you just have to understand, like, the things that he had to overcome to even get to our practices, which were 30 minutes away. You know, he just did, like, he. It was way harder for him, okay? And I can understand that there are kids I play with who, like, didn't have that struggle, who were like, you know, they had. They had whatever they needed to have, and some kids didn't. That's one example. But there's way more than that. So I've been able to understand that not everybody has the same things, okay? There are people who have to overcome a lot more to get the same things that other people just kind of have. You know, I've been able to realize that from my own perspective, I have a lot of things that a lot of people don't have. And I think that the ability to have that sort of empathy is a very big. It's a lack in. Especially in America these days, but really throughout the world. But in America, being able to see, just be in somebody else's shoes and think about what their life is actually like, it's just not something that we get to really see. But that's the power of basketball, right? There is you get to see your teammates who are just like you. They want the same things as you. They want to be great just like you do. But you all come from different backgrounds. But at the end of the day, we're all on one team, okay? We all are trying to win, and that means that I need to. I've got to learn how to win with this kid who is from this background. I'm going to also learn to win with this kid who's from this different background. And we might all be in the same team, we might not. We might have nothing in common other than basketball, right? But we learned to have a mutual respect for each other. And, you know, and a lot of times those. Those guys are going to become your friends, you know, maybe even your best friends, and they might have nothing in common with you, okay? Which is the power of sports, but basketball especially, which is why it's been great to see the response from the basketball community this week. And going forward, I think that's super important part. I think we have a responsibility in the basketball world to continue to move this forward, okay? Because if you play basketball with people who are not like you, who are different than you, come from a different background than you, then you. It moves forward. And this is kind of what I talked about a couple weeks ago, where the importance of sports can't be understated. Okay. You know, with the whole coronavirus, everything opening back up in a lot of places, you know, and obviously the NBA coming back at the end of July, people still are like, oh, who cares? Like, it's just sport. No. Well, the thing about sports is that it brings people together from different backgrounds. Right? Even if you look at guys who are pro athletes, a lot of them don't come from the same place, okay? They come from different backgrounds, but they all come together and they go to war together and they become brothers because of that. Okay? That's the power of sports, and that's the power of approaching things with that sort of mindset. Okay. And I think that's a mentality that needs to be spread further throughout America. And if we can do that, I think that is a big step in the right direction for everybody. So that was kind of what I wanted to talk about regarding that. Obviously, like I said, there's way more that I could get into regarding that. But that's my message for you guys. Just kind of some things you can take from that. Understand, you don't know everything yet. I don't know everything yet. Nobody knows everything yet. We all have to learn from each other and understand that we all have different experiences. And also, the way that you treat people can literally change the world. It can literally change how somebody approaches their entire life just by the way that you treat them. So understand that every time you interact with somebody, you have that, you have that power. So felt like that was definitely important to talk about. And, and you know, obviously we'll see how the situation continues to unfold. But you know, that was, that was kind of my, my, my thoughts on, on that matter. Regarding that. Again, not everything, but, but I think the, the important stuff for right now, let's get into this. So, so, you know, I, I had posted on Instagram yesterday, actually. Well, you guys are seeing this on Sunday. So this would have been on Thursday night that I posted this where I talked about what the most important skill in basketball is. Okay. I was like, I was asking you guys, like, what's the most important skill in basketball? And I got a ton of responses from people. You know, I got some people who said dribbling, making others around you better, you know, ball handling, confidence, believing in yourself, being able to get into the zone, decision making and kind of some more sub mental toughness and basketball iq, which obviously are all great things. But the overwhelming Majority of answers were shooting. And you know, I've mentioned this a couple times before, and so I kind of expected that, but that, that. So, so to me, you know, I agree with that. I think shooting is the most important skill in basketball. And today I'm going to explain to you why that is. And you know, off the bat though, the ability to shoot the basketball, that in itself is going to lead to everything else for you, okay? So. So the ability to shoot the basketball is so crucial because it leads to everything else and it also makes everything else easier when you're able to shoot the basketball, for example. And we're going to use these guys a lot throughout today because there's a lot that goes into this. It's not just about shooting, but it's about the other things that go along with the ability to shoot. But you look at a guy like Stephen or Clay or even Trae Young, okay, Those three guys are not the best athletes. Now obviously they're all pro athletes, okay? They're phenomenal athletes compared to the average person. But compared to NBA players, those three guys aren't transcendent athletes. But they still are able to get to the rim. And all the time, like, it's not like a strange occurrence. They will do it all the time because of their ability to shoot the basketball. They spread the defense so far out that it makes it easier to get by them and to be able to create going downhill, okay? So that all starts with those guys ability to shoot. If they couldn't shoot, then their, their effectiveness would just be completely, completely ruined. You know, it's like the rich get richer, right? The guys who can shoot are also able to get downhill easier. So they're also going to be better inside, right? Steph's a great finisher, okay? But he's able to get there because he can shoot. Now if he couldn't shoot, he wouldn't, he wouldn't still have that inside ability because now he can't even get there, okay? So you have to understand when you, when you have shooting, that is going to allow you to build on that part of your game and add to it as well. So their ability to shoot allows them to get to the basket. And. And the other thing that you'll see if you watch those guys or any great shooter is that the confidence you get in your game from the ability to shoot the basketball is just, it's just next level. And you know, for example, like, if you're playing and, and you know, like, you can shoot like you're a Knockdown shooter. Then you'll know that no matter who you play against or where you're playing at, or what team you're on, you'll have the ability to contribute to winning. Okay, now we're going to talk about shooting today. Ultimately, the most important skill to have is the ability to impact winning for your team because that's how you play more, that's how you win more, that's how you have more fun playing basketball. That's how you just become successful as a basketball player. So obviously you've got to play into your role. But I want to talk specifically about the, specifically about tangible skills, okay? Because that's a whole other video that I'll probably do at some point, talking about your role and maximizing that, because that's very, very important. But I think overall, especially in today's game of basketball, you have to go shoot the basketball. And it's the most important skill. And you know, for example, like, like if you look around today's NBA, okay, always the way they play will always trickle down. So it's going to trickle down to college, then to high school, then to youth. Like the way that the NBA plays dictates how everybody else is going to play. So the first point you need to understand about the importance of shooting the basketball is that just a small increase in shooting percentage wins games. So obviously there are so many times where you'll lose a game by 2 or 4 points and even a 1 or 2% increase in your team shooting percentage wins you the game. Okay, the difference between shooting 40 and 42% from the field in a game is the difference between you winning a game and you losing a game. That's the difference between you winning 15 games or you losing 15 games. It's, it's that simple right there. We can look at it in a specific example. So if you score 78 points as a team will say, right, you need to make 39 two pointers to do that. We'll just, we're just gonna use two pointers for now. So you got to make 39 two pointers. You want to score 78 points. If your team shoots 40%, then you'll have to generate about 98 attempts. 98 two point attempts to make 39. Okay, so suppose that instead of that, you only shoot 30%. Okay, so instead of 40% shoot 30%, you now need to generate 130 attempts to get to that same amount of points. Right? So we go from you need to have 98 attempts to you having to have 130, right. All because of a 10% decrease in your shooting percentage. Okay? So 32 shots is the difference right there with that 10%. Now the importance of that is that as you see like a shot, a drop in shooting percentage or shooting ability more, more realistically is, means that your team is going to have a lot less room for error. So now all of a sudden you have to play a lot better defense and you have to be a lot better as a rebounding team because you, you don't have the, you can't afford to lose possessions, you can't afford to give up a lot of points because you guys just can't score at a high enough rate to be able to make up for that. You guys can't really play fast because you can't afford to make mistakes because you don't have guys who can put the ball in the basket. At the end of the day, that's what it's all about. But obviously today's NBA, today's college, today's high school, it's all about being able to shoot threes. Okay? The best team shoot threes. Unless you have just their incredibly athletic and big team. The best teams these days, even, even those teams have guys who can shoot the basketball. Okay, look at the Golden State Warriors. They didn't have the best athletes necessarily, but they had guys who could shoot lights out. And let's, let's, but let's, let's take a look at that for example, because the three point shot has completely changed the way that the approach to basketball has to be at this point because of its relevancy and, and the power that the three point shot has in today's game of basketball. So if we have two teams that are playing each other and we'll say the first team shoots 50 shots, right? And they're all two pointers and they shoot 50%. Okay, that would be 50 points. You shoot 50% of the field, which is if, as a team, if you shoot 50% for a game, that's a great game, right? That's great for you. So let's say that the other team shoots 50 shots, but they shoot all threes and they shoot 40%. Okay, that would be 60 points. So they shoot 10% worse than that team that shot all twos. But because they should, we're shooting threes. They won the game by 10 points comfortably by double digit, by double digits just because of the shots that they take. So you can see that you, you, you can, you don't have to be super efficient like you have to be efficient. Obviously, 40% from, from, from three is a great number, especially as a team. But you have to understand that, you know, the three pointer allows you to, to not have to make as many shots as you would if you were going to make twos and still win the game. So you can look at that, that, that example right there. That last team could shoot as low as 34% from three as a team, and they still would win the game as opposed to the other team that shot 50% just because they're shooting threes. So if you as a team can get to 34%, then, then all of a sudden you're gonna be a very difficult team to guard, right? That means that that team shooting threes can win the game with 17 makes as opposed to the other team who makes 25. Okay? You can make, you can make eight less shots and still win the game. And you know, teams that can shoot in the mid-30s or higher as, as, as a group are going to be very, very hard teams to stop because you have a lot of guys who can put the ball in the basketball. And obviously that, that goes to the individual as well. So you, if you can make 40% of your threes as opposed to 30%, you all of a sudden change the entire dynamic for your team. Okay? So, so that, that's the important, that obviously that raises your whole team's percentage right there. So just, just little brief, you know, little slight increases that can take you from scoring 8 points per game to 14 points per game, right? Just based on your, your percentages going up a little bit, becoming a little bit of a better shooter increases your ability to score at a much bigger rate than you might even think. And so obviously that's off the bat winning. And your performance hinges completely on your shooting percentage, right? And games are won and lost by 1 or 2%. So the second point, and what I've talked about before, if you've listened to me, you've probably heard me talk about this, but when you, when you can shoot, that forces the defense to have to play you completely different. And again, we'll look at it from a team perspective. You know, if you have even one good shooter on the floor, that defense has to account for that shooter, and that's going to open up the floor, it's going to open up lanes for, for everybody else, okay? And obviously if you have multiple great shooters on the floor, then that completely changes the dynamic for you. And, and it completely, it makes you extremely difficult to guard at this point. Look at The Golden State warriors, for example, you know, you got Stephen Clay, and then you add KD to that, I mean, it's pick your poison. Someone's going to beat you. Who's it going to be? Okay, when you got three shooters, Steph can have a night where he is off and, you know, goes 1 for 11 and KD might be off and he only goes 1 for 9 from 3 and then Clay's going to go 7 for 12 and he's going to score 40 and you're going to lose. That's kind of how it works. When you have a lot of shootings on your team, you can have off nights because shooters will always have off nights. You know, that's the thing you live by, you die by it as well. But when you have multiple guys who can put the ball in the basket from three, then you might have two guys who have an off night and another guy who gives you 30 that night because he's not off. And the next night might be a different guy. Okay? Now when you can shoot the basketball, defense have to close out a lot harder on you, okay? They have to get to you out of that help rotation. When that ball gets kicked to you, they got to get there because they know you can shoot the basketball. They got to contest it, which is going to mean it's going to be easier for you to attack closeouts. And anybody who is in the perimeter score system and has gone through the 20 points regained blueprint understands that attacking closeouts is one of the best times to attack the basket because the defense has their momentum going towards you. And if you can go the other way, they're going to have to stop completely and then change directions and gain momentum to get back and stop you. So if you're good at attacking closeouts, you will get downhill. And it all starts, though, with the defense respecting your ability to shoot the basketball. If they don't respect your ability to shoot, they aren't going to close out hard on you. It's going to be a lot harder for you to get those opportunities to attack closeouts. So it all starts with your ability to shoot the respect that they're going to give you because of that. And I think attacking closeouts is just a massive part of the game because, you know, if you, if they have to close out on you, you, you and you attack that closeout, that means somebody else on defense is going to have to rotate. So you're either going to have a wide open enderrain shot if no one rotates quick enough Wide open layup. If they really don't rotate quick enough or they might get there on the rotations. But that means you're going to have another driving kick for another guy to have a catch and shoot three. Okay? So it's as simple as that. When you, when you can shoot the basketball, it's going to open up lanes for you and your teammates. So that's why it's so important. Great shooters stretch out the defense and makes it incredibly hard for defenses to stop you. Again, look at the Golden State Warriors. How are you supposed to stop all those guys coming off the screens? How are you supposed to account for three of the best shooters ever in Steph, Clay and kd? How are you supposed to do that? You can't do it. You can't do it. It's just not possible. And that's a big part of it as well. And then another point to make there is shooting. The ability to shoot the basketball is going to get you more playing time. Okay? So like I said, shooting completely changes the entire dynamic for a team. The entire dynamic for, for an offense you can run. If you're a coach and you know you have shooters, you can run a completely different set of style of offense than if you don't have any shooters. Okay? So let, so, so you know, obviously let's be clear, like, shooting is not the only skill that you need to play, right? You need more than just the ability to shoot the basketball. Unless you do that at an incredibly high level, which in that case you might have enough for that. But coaches want great shooters and great shooters are not easy to find because becoming a shooter takes a lot of time and a lot of work. And we're going to get into that a little bit more as well. But look at a guy like Kyle Korver. So you know, Kyle Korver, obviously not a great athlete, not going to put the ball on the floor very much, not a great defender. But he is out there to shoot the basketball at a high level. And because of his ability to do that, he made an all star game. As a guy who's not a great defender, not a great ball handler, not a great athlete, incredible shooter, makes an all star game. So what else is he, what else is he great at though? Like Kyle Cobra is, obviously he can shoot the basketball. We know that. We can look at the percentages. We can see that. But here's the thing. It isn't good enough to just practice standstill threes and then say, oh, you know, I work on my three point Shot coach, like I should be a great shooter because I just, I work on my threes all the time. It's not, it's not good enough for you to only practice shooting standstill threes because it's. Again, we talked about this last week with block versus random training, okay? You will never have a play in basketball that is exactly the same as when you've seen before, okay? So by you just standing on the wing shooting repeatedly over and over and over, you need to do that. Don't get me wrong, you need block training, but you also need to add in random training as well. So training out of situations. Kyle Korver is phenomenal at coming off of off ball screens, at moving up the basketball to get open. He's phenomenal. He's phenomenal at hitting shots while moving. Right? He's great at it, which is why he's able to thrive in the NBA as a shooter because he's so good at being able to do that, being a good shooter. Practice does not mean you'll be a great shooter in games. And again, it comes down to how are you practicing? Are you practicing to look good and to just be like, oh yeah, you know, I hit a bunch of threes in the wing standing still. And that was my, that was my work, my three point shot. That's important, don't get me wrong, because you're going to have stand still, catch and shoot threes at times. But you're also, if you want to actually be a great shooter, you've got to also be able to hit shots out of different situations. You know, you look at a guy like Kyle Korver or Steph Curry or Klay Thompson, Ray Allen or any guy who's put up, you know, crazy high percentages from 3 over their careers and you'll see that all of them are elite at moving without the basketball to get their shots off. And because of that they're able to actually get open for those three point shots. Because listen, when teams know you can shoot, a lot of times they're going to put a guy on you to completely stop you and take you out of the game. So if you can't get open, you can't move with a basketball, then teams can take you out of the game. It doesn't matter how great you shoot if you can't get the ball or you can't get the shot off. Okay? So that, that involves using pin downs correctly, that involves using screens correctly. You know, it involves knowing how to relocate when your teammates drive and kick and being Able to fill lanes correctly as well in transition and all stuff that goes into that. And this is something that we really focus on. Again, all my guys in the 20 points per game blueprint have, have seen this, that we, I break it down where you know what exactly need to do to, to be effective off ball and as a shooter it. Being a relocate especially is a big skill in today's basketball. Because a lot of, a lot of basketball today is very flow heavy where you know, you're working, driving kicks, attack closeouts, get to the paint dish, you know, cuts and being able to relocate and space out in the perimeter. A lot of four out, a lot of five out offenses are big today, especially in the high school and college level and I mean at every level it is. But you know that, that, that kind of goes to your ability to move out. The basketball has become even more important and your ability to understand where you should move in relation to your offense and then being able to drill in hitting those shots, okay, that's how you become a great shooter. And the other thing those guys do as great shooters is they, they sell their shot face well. Okay? Again, another point we talk about in the 20 points per game blueprint is being able to, to use that shot fake. If you have an effective shot fake, you, you're going to have opportunities to score points, okay? You're going to have opportunities to get open looks. Because when you can take a defender out of a play, even if they're more athletic than you, if you can get them to raise up or leave their feet, what, what can they do if they're off their feet, they can't move. If they're in the air, you can. So if you can get somebody to jump at your, at your shot fake, let's say your teammate drives, kicks out to you, your guy's closing out, you hit him with a shot fake, he jumps for it. You can take a side dribble, have a wide open three, you can dribble downhill, hit a mid range shot, you might be able to get downhill and finish at the rim or like I said before, you might be able to get the whole way, you know, drive and then the defense rotates and now you can kick to the, to your next teammate who's wide open now for a catch and shoot easy three. Okay? So the shot fake is incredibly important and guys like Steph and Clay are so good at doing that and that because guys respect their three point shot. So all of those skills are important to becoming a great shooter. It's not Just about having great form though. You need that. Obviously it's not just about, you know, your ability to hit, you know, to go to the gym and then hit a million spot up shots. Form and being able to hit spot up jump shots are critically important. Do not get me wrong, you need to do both of those things. I'm not saying you don't. I'm just saying that's not where it ends. Okay? That's where it starts. And you know, I'm sure a lot of you guys have probably seen my ultimate shooting workout on YouTube. If you haven't, make sure you check that out. It's on my channel. If you go to my playlist, you'll see a shooting playlist. Go in there, you'll see it. But those are shots you have to work on if you, if you want to be a great shooter. Out of different situations where we're working off of, off the float dribble, working off of relocation, working off of pin downs, different things that you need to be able to do off the dribble off of different moves like between the legs, off the step back again, different moves you need to be able to do different situations you need to be able to shoot out of if you actually want to call yourself a shooter. Because again, you don't want to be a one dimensional guy who's great when you can just spot up and hit, catch and shoot. But as soon as the defender plays differently, makes you have to work coming off of screens, you can't shoot anymore, right. Or you can't even put the ball on the ground at all to get your shot. Okay. So you need to work on those things as well. So check out that workout if you haven't. I think that that'll really help you guys. And you know, again, this kind of goes back to that we talked about last week. The overall importance of the overall definition really of what a skill is. Okay. You know, the, the, the misconception is that, and players have it backwards is that they think that a skill means doing it right? So if I go to the gym and I shoot my form shots and I work, I shoot a thousand jump shots, then I've, I've, I've worked on my skills. Well, kind of. And by the way, I say a thousand jump shots. I just posted a video this past week about why you should not be shooting a thousand jump shots for your workouts. If you haven't seen that go on my channel, watch that. Just, I won't go into it, but don't do that. You can do. There are better methods, more efficient methods of getting better than doing that. But it's about more than just going to the gym, working on your form, shooting, and then working on your spot up shooting, okay? It's also about your ability to again, hit shots out of different situations. So you need to make sure that. Going back to what I was talking about last week, the first part of a skill is your ability to read it, okay? Your ability to see what's happening and then your ability to know what you need to do next. The next part is the plan. So again, determining what you're going to do and knowing what the right next step is, what the right move to make is. And then the third part is the do part, which is where you actually get into shooting the basketball. So if we break down, for example, you know, that shot fake that we're talking about, you know, the, the, the ball your teammate drives, kicks out to you, your defender is closing out, you make a read saying, oh, he's getting kind of close to me. I might be able to get him with a shot fake. So you do that. You hit him with a shot fake. So you read it, you made your plan, then you did it. You hit him with a shot fake, went into a side, into a side dribble, then hit three, right? That's a skill right there where you have to, you have to, you have to read it, then you have to plan it, then you have to do it, okay? And that goes for anything you do in the game of basketball. So understand that that's very important. Which also leads me into my next point of. For me, I think one of the biggest parts of my own development as a shooter was playing more one on one, where we would go starting at the top of the three point line or the top of the key, and we would go three dribble max, where now all of a sudden, you know, I might go against somebody who's quicker than me. Maybe I'm not gonna be able to get downhill and three dribbles on him. And I definitely don't have the opportunity to just, you know, set him up with some crossovers and do all these fancy things. I have three dribbles, right? So I've got to worry. I've got to be able to get my shot off now, okay? So it, I have to be able to shoot in tight spaces. I have to know when can I hit him with a shot fake and get by him? When, when can I hit him with a jab, get him to back up? So I can hit my three. That, that changes the way that you are. You approach shooting, okay? And it makes you a lot more comfortable shooting the basketball with a guy's hand in your face, okay. Or a guy right next to you. Because that's another part of the game that you need to understand. I posted a drill a while back about closeout shooting where essentially if you have, you know, you're with a couple of your friends or your teammates and you're, you're repeatedly passing the ball to each other, closing out, giving a little bit of pressure. So just to work on that sort of ability to hit shots with somebody closing out on you. And it's similar with that one on one. So I think one on one with a dribble limit is super important to developing yourself as a shooter. Because with a three dribble limit, you're gonna be taking a lot of jump shots. Whether that's just straight up jab into a three pointer shot, picking a three pointer, one dribble, step back, one dribble, inverted drag into a step back, whatever. Probably take a lot of jump shots, you'll get to the rim too. But you're going to have to work on being able to hit tough shots, okay? I think that's very, very important. So the question becomes, how do you get started becoming a great shooter? Because look, obviously I can tell you all this, but what can you do to actually get there? And we talked about it a little bit, but it all starts with your form, okay? So if your form is off, if you have weird spin on the ball, if you can't, you consistently miss to the sides, if you can't consistently hit shots, you're gonna have to evaluate is your form good. Because guess what? No matter how many shots you put up, if your form is, is, is bad, if it's preventing you from, from getting consistent, you'll never be a great shooter, okay? In order to be great at something, you need to be consistent at it. There is no greatness without consistency. And if you don't have good form, you won't be consistent, okay? And at least you won't be consistent at a high level when, when, when defense is better. So understand that. And I have some videos on getting great form as well. So check out my YouTube channel, I have a playlist on that too. Check that out. DM me if you have any questions about that. But that, that's where it starts off, is, is developing great form. And for me, just a little bit of a background, you know, when I was a junior in high school, um, I. I was. I was a good shooter. Like, I was a decent. A good shooter. You know, I had some games my junior year where I'd hit five threes, four threes at multiple. I hit where at three. So, like, I had pretty decent amount of success, but for me, it was really up and down. So some. I would go droughts, right? I'd have droughts where I just miss everything. And then I have a couple of games where I'd hit, you know, eight and two games, right, where it's just. You don't want to be that. You don't want to be inconsistent like that. That's just. That's just not. That's not what you want. Okay? So, you know, I had an assistant coach who was on me the whole time. So for those of you who don't know, I transferred to a private school when I was a junior, and from the. Literally the minute I stepped in the gym, I had an assistant coach who was just on me about changing my form. Every day was on me about it. And at first, I was kind of like, I didn't want to because I felt like, oh, I'm good enough. Like, I've hit threes. Like, you know, I was coaching. I just had five threes the other day. Why do we change my form? But I did at the end of the day. So going into my senior year, I spent some time correcting my form. What I did essentially, is, you know, I had the ball. I was shooting from the middle of my body. So, you know, if you look, if you're on YouTube, you can see it, but I'm essentially shooting the ball from here, right in the middle of my frame as opposing it being out here. Okay? And look, for some people, that works. If you watch Kevin Durant shoot, he shoots like that from the middle, and he's one of the greatest of all time. But also, if you watch gods like Klay Thompson, the truth from the outside, it's all about determining what works best for you. For me, when I shot it from the middle, my alignment was a little bit off, and it would sometimes mess up the spin on my shot. So it sometimes made me inconsistent. So I moved the ball to my outside, and it was difficult at first because I. Then it kind of in my shot a little flatter. So I had to. I had to correct that and get it. Get more arc on it. And then also, you know, it was just. It was uncomfortable, obviously, to go from something you've been doing to something new. But I stuck with it, you know, a lot of times I was shoot. I wasn't really shooting any three pointers for a while. Maybe, you know, at least for probably about a couple weeks or to a month until I, you know, obvious I was playing up a ton of shots, so I kind of sped up that process. But shooting a lot of shots in the paint, really making sure I feel that that ball coming up the side of my body as opposed to the middle. And, you know, because of that, my spin got better, my consistency got better, my alignment got better, and the next year, I was a significantly better shooter. And to this day, I've continued to get better because I made that sacrifice to fix my form, even though it was uncomfortable and even though I probably could have not done it. And, you know, I could have told myself, oh, it's good enough. It's fine right now. But you don't know what you can get to. If you are able to. If you commit to actually fixing it and making it as good as you can. Okay, that. That's an important part to have. And again, I have videos on that. You know, that whole off season I spent with a piece of tape around the center of the basketball, which you've seen. I had a video a few weeks ago about correcting your shooting form where I'd recommended that. See what your spin looks like. Put a piece of tape in the ball if that. If that ball doesn't spin and that tape is in a straight line the whole time, you probably got a little bit of side rotation you got to fix. So I could tell the progress on my shot based on the rotation. So I went from being kind of weird with a little bit of side rotation to good rotation, good backspin on it, because I moved the location. I worked on it. Okay? So that's where it gets started. So obviously there, then number two, it's about the reps, okay? So I talk about this to my players all the time. You know, if we learn a move or we learn a certain shot in practice or in training, you have to be able to go put the reps in, right? If we're only working for a couple hours a week, you better be going home and doing the same thing. You better be going home and working on this move so when you come back, you're better at it, right? You can't do something once or twice a week, and then, you know, for an hour at a time and expect to get great at it. Okay? Shooting is the same exact way. And once you have that form, you've got to Be able to take that form that you've perfected. It might not be perfect, okay? Don't say I have to be perfect at it, but it's really good. Okay? Your rotation is good, your alignment is good, and you can be consistent at it. Then the way you get consistent is by practicing it. Okay? So you, you're, you're not to take those spot up shots, okay? You have to take those, those five shots, five spots, drills, you know, stuff like that. And then once you have that down, you know your form is good, you know you're a little more consistent. You've got to make sure that you're working on these, on these drills that I'm talking about where you're not just standing still, you're coming off of pin downs, you're coming off of, you're relocating into the corner, up to the wing, you're going off of a shot, a shot, fake side dribble, different types of moves you need to be able to hit different types of actions and games you're going to see. And again, check out the ultimate scoring workout on my YouTube channel if you want to see a workout you can do that's going to help you incorporate those things. And that's important though, so make sure you guys check that out. But that's really the biggest thing. Develop your perfect form, your great form, get the reps up and then make sure that the reps you're getting up are going to stimulate game actions and kind of go along with that last part. You know, if you are, you know, if you play for a team and you know the system, right? You know the shots you're going to get, you know, you know what, you know, what, what looks you're going to be getting in games. You know, the, the spots you need to be able to be effective from as a shooter. You know, maybe your team's a lot of down screens. So, you know, like I've got to be able to hit shots coming off a down screen or maybe your team is very heavy driving kick. So you got to be able to relocate and hit shots off of that. Focus on those shots, become great in your system you play in. Okay, that, that's important as well. If I'm gonna work with somebody and I know their system well, right Then at that point I can, I can, I can add in drills that are going to help them to work on stuff out of those situations they're gonna find themselves in in games. Okay? So that's an important part of becoming a great shooter. And at the End of the day, you know, the thing about shooting is that it's funny because, you know, when you talk about the game of basketball, right, And I'll relate this back to basketball in a minute, but the guy who. Who constructed Mount Rushmore was saying, you know, listen, if I wanted to. If this was about, you know, appealing to the intellect of people and just telling who the four most important presidents are, I put it on a pin and I'd sell it if I wanted to just appeal to people's intellect, but I want to appeal to people's emotions, so I'm going to put it on the side of a mountain, right? So obviously, we can compare this to basketball, because you have a play like a dunk, right, Or a chase down block, where everyone's just going crazy. Like, that appeals to the. To the emotional side. It's like you see LeBron chase down block in the finals. Everyone's going crazy. It's like, wow, how does he do that? You see Giannis catch a lob over Tim Hardaway Jr. And everyone goes crazy because it's just. It's just unreal. Shooting is way different. Shooting. When you see a great shooter, a pure shooter, you're like, man, like, that is, like, that's. That's amazing right there because, like, it appeals to a different part of you, right? Shooting is all about the reps you put in. You don't become a great shooter because you're born that way, right? Some people are 7ft tall, so they can dunk. That's how it is. But not nobody is born with the ability to shoot the basketball. You have to put the work in to do that, and people. People recognize that. So when you see, you know, a great shooter, there's a respect that you have for that person because you know, that person put in the time to it, okay? They've put in the time to. To become great at it. When you see guys who can hit tough shots, you know, you watch a guy, like, if I watch it when I watch Damian Lillard play basketball, I mean, the. The just crazy, difficult shots he hits. I mean, you. You guys have to understand the hours he's got to put in to be able to confidently hit those in games. Same thing with Steph. I mean, it's just. It's unimaginable. But you see that, and there's so much. There's such a big respect for guys like that. And again, as basketball continues to progress forward, those guys are going to be more and more the focal point at every level, at every Level, we're going to have more and more guys who are, who are, who are the most important players on the floor because their ability to shoot the basketball. Okay? Obviously, basketball's gone from, you know, where every team has a big to now everyone's playing small and everyone's shooting the perimeter, okay? So adjust yourself accordingly. And to me, that's why in the game of basketball, shooting is the most important skill. Again, it leads to everything else. And once you can do that, it completely changes the way the defenses have to play you and it makes your life significantly easier. So I want to get into a couple questions before I end today. And I got some really good questions this week. Like I always say, guys, if you have questions for me, send me a DM on Instagram is the best way for me to see it at visiondrivenbasketball on Instagram, if you go into the description of this podcast or in YouTube, you'll see the link to my Instagram. So click on that, give me a follow, send me a DM if you have a question for me. And so this came from my guy, Ian, and he was asking, he said, hey, I'm wondering if I should start shooting from the NBA three point line during my workouts because my three pointer feels very good. Again, shout out to Ian the perimeter score system. One of the members in there. I mean, he's working right now, so this is a great question. It's something I meant to talk about a long time ago and something I always tell to guys I'm working with, especially when they're in high school. If I'm working with a high school kid and I know he's going to be a college player, or even if I don't know for sure, but I think he might be, I'm going to tell that kid, stop shooting high school threes. Stop doing it. Don't shoot high school threes. Shoot college threes. At least start shooting college threes in all of your workouts, okay? Because here's the thing. Moving farther back. And again, I'm only gonna say this to a kid who can shoot the ball. If a kid can't shoot, we're gonna shoot high school threes until he can. But if I'm, if I'm working with a player who can shoot the basketball, well, we're not shooting high school threes, we're shooting college threes because that's gonna prepare you for the next level. Obviously you're going to, it's not going to be a bigger jump for you when you're like, oh, I shot high school my whole career. Now I got to work on taking another foot back. Just start shooting it in college students. Now also, when you're in high school, a lot of your shots aren't going to be hugging the three point line. So if you're in practice hugging the three point line half an inch away from the three point line, that's just not realistic in a game. Because guess what? In a game, you better not be hugging that line. Because as a coach, if I'm, if I see somebody take a shot with the foot on the line, I'm like, why, why not take half a step back and shoot a three, get three points for it. Or why not take one more dribble forward and shoot at the elbow, right? You got to pick something. Don't be in between. Don't be indecisive. Take. Start shooting college threes. That's, that's my advice to anybody who's, who's in high school. Start shooting College 3. It's something that I started doing when I was probably going in my senior year of high school and it made threes a lot easier because now if, if you know, if, which will happen, there'll be times in games where you will shoot from the high school line, right? But now all of a sudden it's gonna be easier for you because you've been shooting it from a foot two feet farther back. Okay? On top of that, you know, when I was, when I was training for or preparing to go to college to play the college level, I started shooting all NBA threes. When I was in workouts, I was like, I'm shooting from the NBA line now. I know at the college level I can hit threes from the college line easily because, because I can shoot from the, from the NBA line. So, you know, Ian had asked about the NBA line. I know he's in high school. You absolutely can, and I recommend you do at times, move back a little bit, you know, test your range out a little bit. See, see, see, see how you're feeling from the NBA line. And once you start to get, to get consistent, just shoot from the NBA line. I think that, that there is nothing but benefits with doing that. I think that that's very important. And again, you know, hugging, hugging the line is just, there's, there's, it's just not useful. You can be getting the same, the, this we talked about last week. Getting, you know, making your practices more efficient, get more out of your practices. I think moving back, shooting from the college Line, which actually I believe they're going to be moving the college line back even further. So I think it's going to be moving to like the FIBA line or just before the end, the, just in front of the NBA line. So, you know, basketball is moving farther back. Three point shooting is moving farther back. You got to adjust to that. Okay? And I'm. Guess what, I'm gonna, I'm gonna assume high schools will probably move the line back at some point too. I don't know how long that'll be, and I haven't heard that from anybody, but I could see it happening. So just adjust to it now. Start to move back a little bit, Start to push your range a little bit. I think that's gonna be nothing but beneficial for you guys moving forward. And again, that only applies to you though. If you can shoot the basketball. Okay, you can't shoot right now. Don't just say, oh, coach said to go shoot NBA threes. No, if you can't shoot, be able to hit mid range shots, then be able to hit high school threes, then you can move back. Okay. Until you get to that point. Get there. We talked about earlier, work on your form. Get, get great form, get the reps up. Get those game reps up. That's. That's where it starts. So got another question from a Cash and he asked me, you know, what do you think about two ball handling? Some of my coaches and trainers have said that it doesn't really benefit you because you only use one basketball in a game. And it's another good question. It's a question I get pretty often. And, you know, I do my live ball handling workouts twice a week. So, you know, for a lot of you guys I know tune into that. If not, make sure you guys follow me on Instagram because I always post the day before when I'm gonna go live for a workout. So if you guys want in on those, make sure you guys check it out. They're completely free. They're on YouTube. And you know, the more people in there, the better, right? The more work you can get in, the better. You know, I talked about my guys last week. I see a lot of guys in my workouts who are there every time or almost every time. You know, every time. Sometimes things come up and they can't make it. But there's guys who in there 90% of the time for workouts over the few months we've been doing this. Right? But if you're one of the guys who's only in there Once, you know, like I said, consistency leads to greatness. You cannot be great without consistency. Okay? So it's very important you're consistent with your work. So I think, you know, if you can get into that, check it out. Like I said, follow me on Instagram and you'll know exactly when I'm going to do that. Also on YouTube, turn on my notifications too. So you know that as well. And anyway, this question has come up multiple times during workouts where guys will comment, they're like, hey coach, can we do a two ball workout next time? Which we've done, we've done a two ball workout and I think two ball workouts have a place in basketball. Like, I think that there are times where two ball workouts can be good. More, they're more, it's more. So just for developing, just for kind of switching it up. Like I think in general one ball, ball handling is just way better, way more effective. You, you'll, you'll get better if you use two ball, ball handling. And this is something that I've learned as, like, as I've gotten older. When I was younger, when I was in high school, I didn't really know that, like I didn't know, I just didn't know in general what I need to do to get better. It's something you learn with time. But you know, I spent a lot of time doing two ball drills when I was in high school, which really was just not a good use of my time. There's a lot better things you can do to handle the basketball. And in general, a lot of the information out there about ball handling just is not very good. A lot of the videos you'll watch on YouTube just aren't very good in terms of developing real ball handling. Like when I look at guys who know what they're doing when it talks to developing ball handling, you know, Tyler Ralph is great at it. If you look at by any means basketball. Coleman, he's great at it too. Like those guys who understand like actually had to develop ball control those moves. And so I try and implement that sort of, that style of training into what I do. And you know, I'm sure those guys do two ball stuff sometimes, but the majority of stuff they do is with one basketball. And I think that in my own experience the most effective way to train ball handling is with one basketball. Because you can simulate game moves, right? I can simulate going quick split between the legs that I can go into an inverted drag, into a retreat, into a push cross, right? I can do that with one basketball and that's a game situation move right there, right. That actually I can apply into my games. I can't do that with two balls, right. Unless I'm like, unreal effective with the ball in my hands. But you're never going to have two basketballs in a game. So if I can get really good at having a basketball in my hands and executing in those game situations, I mean, you can become really great at it. So I don't think two ball, I don't think two ball drills are bad. You know, people also talk about. This kind of goes on with the whole thing. People talk about, you know, I've heard people refer to it as clown drills or Instagram drills, essentially drills where, you know, there's a lot of extra equipment and stuff that you probably don't need. But like, it looks cool, people do it and you know, I, I'm on the fence with that. I see a lot of stuff, honestly a lot of popular stuff that I think is like kind of clownish. Guys like, you know, holding, like cones are cool. I'm not going to say like, I'm not against cones or anything, but like, I think people sometimes tend to overdo it. People like overdo like, you know, you're, you're going up, finishing, someone's throwing a ball at you, you got to hit out of the way. I think, I think that's kind of like I'm not, I'm not a big fan of that look, I'm not completely educated look, I talked this earlier, I don't know everything yet. Okay? So maybe there's some sort of benefit to that. But that's just my initial judgment of it. Okay. I don't think everything out there is, is, is the most efficient way to do things. Again, when I talk about my if you shoot, if you should shoot a thousand shots a day answer is no. Because there are more efficient ways for you to get better, right? If you shoot a thousand shots in a day, you'll probably get better. But I bet you could get as good or better than that with 250 shots. In fact, I guarantee you can. So it's the same thing with two ball. You know, you can get better with two ball ball handling. But would it be more effective for you to spend 20 minutes working on one ball drills as opposed to 20 minutes on two ball drills? Yeah, it would be. And again, in our workouts we'll switch up sometimes so say, you know what guys? Today we're going to go two ball. We've done it one time I probably done 40. Maybe not 40, but at least. Probably 30 live workouts and yeah, maybe not even 30. Maybe 20. Between 20 and 30. It's been the past few months and my entire outlook has been like, we've done all those workouts in one has been two ball. One of them just to switch it up because someone asked. So I was like, you know what? Cool, we'll do that today. And that was cool. The other thing too is like tennis ball drills, like our tennis ball drills effective. And I think that they can be. I think that there's a lot of. Again, if you watch Tyler Ralph know you, he does lots of tennis balls. I think you can use tennis balls well too. Is it necessary? No. But I think there's a place for it too. I just don't think that that should be your main form of ball handling. I think the most. Most time you should be working on being able to handle the ball at a very high speed. Pounding the basketball with one working on those game situations, moves, pushing the speed of things. That's one thing I stress so much in those live workouts is like, guys, you. You have to push the speed that you do these drills at. You need to mess these drills up because if you're not messing them up, you probably aren't pushing yourself. And if you're not pushing yourself, you're not going to get better at. Does not matter how good you look right now during your basketball drills. It doesn't matter. Okay? It only matters if you have the skills during games. That's what matters. And you develop that by working hard and looking bad during practice. Okay. And I find that that's very. I find that that's easier to do when I'm doing it with one basketball where I can really simulate those game actions. Okay, so. So the answer to your question is there's. There's both have a place but one ball drills to me are far better. Far better. Okay. And obviously that's why I spend most of my time with you guys and with my own players doing one ball ball handling. Okay. Game plays for both but one ball majority of the time. So last question for today is from my guy, Valens Valance. I'm not sure how to pronounce your name, but he had said he was asking me essentially about, you know, he sent me his highlights. Basically he was saying, hey, coach, like, should I send this out to coaches? I believe he's a freshman or sophomore. And he was saying like, hey, you know, Chef sends out to coaches and what do you think I should, I should add to it? I gave him some, some, you know, I gave him some feedback on that, Tim specifically, but you know, that's not necessarily when I get into. But basically I gave us some advice at the end. So this is kind of going to be geared towards guys who play big man or forward in, in high school. Because, you know, this guy I was talking to, he's. He's 6 2, right? He's playing forward in high school, probably not the varsity level yet, I'm assuming. But, you know, you're six foot two, so maybe, you know, you hit six, four, six, five, maybe you can get bigger than that. Maybe you hit six, six. But if you're, if you aren't there, like if you don't hit 6, 5, 6, 6 at the college level at any level, I mean, especially obviously the D1 level, if you're not 610, 6 9, 6 8, at the minimum, you're not, you're not a big guy. You're not, you're. You're. You're a guard, right? But even at, you know, at the D2, D3 level, if you're not at least 6, 5, 6, 6, you probably aren't a big, um. And even still, a lot of those big guys have perimeter skills too. So, you know, kind of what I, what I, what I told him is like, listen, man, you know, if you want to. So if you don't, if you don't grow that much more and you end up being 6, 3, 6, 4, that's good size for, for a guard, for a wing player. You're, you're, you're next step to the college level. Even at, you know, the D3 or juco level, like, even at, like those, like the low D. Obviously I've talked about D3 low before. A lot of good D3 schools are better than D2 schools, and some of them are better than D1 schools. So let's get that out of the way. But if you go to like a low level D3 or a low level juco, even those schools are going to have big guys who are 6, 5, 6, 6, right? Even those, maybe 6, 4, maybe if he's really good, right? So if you're that size, evaluate yourself. You're six, two, six three. You're not a forward, you're a guard at the college level. So if you are contemplating that, you got to ask yourself, do I have the skills to actually translate to college right now? Okay? If you're, if you're a big and you're that size and you can't handle the ball, you can't shoot, you can't play on the outside. You know, you don't. Now the thing is you might, you might understand how to play inside. So maybe when you get to the college level, you, you're able to post guys up. If you've got a guard on you who's a little smaller than you, your coach, okay, we'll get you in the post a little bit this game. Because you played post in high school, like you know what you're doing. Cool. But when you go against a guy who's the same size as you, who's a guard, you got to be able to guard him, right? If you are going to play big and all the bigs you're playing are six seven and six eight, that's a problem, right? You get a four or five inch difference right there. That's a problem for you. So you got to evaluate that and be honest with yourself. So, you know, that was kind of what I told him is like, you know, you have some time to do that. I believe he's a freshman. But you know, before you, you start sending out that film, the code is you start inquiring, make sure that they can see you actually fitting in at that level, right. What are they going to do with a six? Too big, not anything. Again, maybe you'll get a little taller. Maybe you will, but ask yourself that question. So if you're six four, you know, there's this. You have to understand that you need to have guard skills as well. Okay. I'm not saying you can't play forward, but I'm saying you need to also have the ability to handle the ball, the ability to shoot the basketball. And then you can add that into your abilities as a bit. Okay. Because I think that there's, you know, basketball is a very perimeter oriented game now, but there still is a spot for guys who can play like that. You know, there's you. There are guys in the NBA who still play in the post right now. A lot of those guys also have other skills. You look at Harrell and the Clippers, for example, right? He's still a post up guy. You know, he's got some great post moves, but also he can put the ball on the floor. He's got nice touch around the rim and he's, he's big and very athletic. Right. He's six eight, six nine, great athlete. So he's able to be a little bit undersized, but his athleticism and his touch his skill allows him to overcome that. So do you have the athleticism and the skill to overcome maybe your lack of size? So, and obviously I broke down Paul millsap on my YouTube channel a couple weeks ago. Last week I believe. So go ahead and check out that breakdown. If you're an undersized forward where he essentially is, is that guy, he's about six foot seven which is not a forward sizing. I mean you're six seven, you're a point guard basically in the NBA at this point. You know point guard, you know guard if you're 6 foot 7. And, but, but Paul Millstop is able to thrive as a forward because he has so many, he's such a well rounded player. He can post up guys and he can bully people. He's very strong but also he can shoot the mid range. He can shoot from three. If you leave him open he can, he can put the ball on the floor. He has a lot of skills that allow him to be an undersized player and still, you know, be, be, be great. I mean he's a four time all star so you have to understand that. But that's kind of my message. I want to have to guys who are like that and obviously like you have to develop those perimeter skills. Okay. And obviously like I always do, I'm going to push you guys the perimeter score system which is my program that you know, I put together year round training and obviously you want to develop your perimeter skills. In my opinion, my humble opinion, that's the best way to do it. You know, not the only way to do it, but I think it's, I think it's very helpful and obviously I've had a lot of guys who give me some really good feedback so far. So you know I've really, I'm really excited to see where those guys are going to be at. Time will tell with those guys but obviously they're getting after it with their whole year round stuff. That also comes with, I alluded to earlier, the 20 points per game blueprint that comes with it. The mental toughness masterclass also comes with it. I have a lot of NBA film breakdowns where I break down different players and their moves and different ways that they play. They're going to really help you out. So if you're interested in that, send me a DM on Instagram, leave a comment and I'll help you because it's not something I'm promoting publicly right now. But if you want into that then we can make that work. So let me know about that. But you know, again, as a forward, really, even if you're not undersized, you've got to have some sort of perimeter skills. You got to be able to shoot the basketball, put the ball on the floor a little bit to get where you need to get to. You can't just be a post up guy unless you're really, really big. Okay? That's kind of how the kind of how basketball works at this point. But that's all I have today for you guys in terms of questions. So like I always say, make sure if you have questions for me, you DM me on Instagram. That's the best way for me to see them. Because sometimes if you leave a comment on YouTube, it can get kind of lost in the mix. So best way to do that, send me a DM on Instagram visiondrivenbasketball. And you know, if you don't have any questions for me, just give me a follow on Vision Driven Basketball. I'm always posting stuff on there. You know, I, anytime I'm doing a film breakdown, I might post some extra stuff on Instagram on my story. So like I did the other day when I was breaking down, I was doing my finishing workout and I watched a video of Kyrie Irving do. Just a ridiculous move where I'm sure a lot of you guys saw it. He goes in and out between his legs with his right hand, gets it basically splits two guys as a Euro step and as a reverse finish. It was, it was just disgusting. It was, it was just, it was offensive that he did that in the game. But it just stuff like that that I'll post too. So make sure you guys check out my Instagram Vision Driven Basketball. Obviously, like I said, if you're on, if you're on Apple podcasts, we really appreciate you guys would leave a review, scroll down to the bottom of the page, give me a review. Really helps the show out. Also if you guys are on YouTube, like subscribe if you're new, would appreciate that as well. And you know, if you guys have not seen, you know, my last podcast or you guys haven't seen, I posted a couple videos this week, but the T shirts are out. So if you guys want to grab a T shirt, support the channel Red Ben Driven Basketball, you can see that on my YouTube channel. Just go back a little bit. There's a whole video on it and on my Instagram as well. So you guys want to check that out. That'll be there. And that's all I have for you guys. Kind of recap why shooting is the most important skill of the game in basketball. Again, any questions? Make sure you send me a DM and I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.