Why Some Players Make It and Most Don't

Foreign. Welcome to the Vision Driven Basketball Training Podcast. Really excited to get started today. Appreciate you guys joining me. Whether you're on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Thanks for tuning in. Today we're going to talk about a few different topics. I'm going to answer a lot of questions, but, you know, we're going to kick it off talking about, you know, getting comfortable, being uncomfortable and how that can provide you with such a massive advantage over other players. Because as you'll learn, people don't like being uncomfortable. And not a lot of people will tolerate that for long periods of time. So gonna talk about, you know, how to be able to get things done, get to the gym when you don't feel like doing it, get your work in when you don't feel like doing it, why that's so important. And I think that just understanding, like, how I lay it out to you guys today, I think is really going to help you guys. I think it's going to inspire you to do it. You see, I almost use the word motivation, but I don't like that word. So I use it. It's going to inspire you guys to be able to do that and really be, I guess, trying to think of the right way to describe it. But essentially, you're going to feel an innate responsibility to go and get your work done regardless, because, you know, other people aren't doing it. That in itself is going to inspire you to do that. So we're going to hop into that. But, you know, the. The majority of players who. Who follow me, who, you know, DM me on Instagram, leave comments. The majority of them, I mean, probably almost every single one of them have big goals when it comes to basketball. And so that's the thing, like, most players do have that. And it's not just them. Like, it's players all around the world who also have those same exact goals. So for me, you know, something I always talk about is you want to be different, right? Like, you, you know, if every player has similar goals to you, every player wants to be great at scoring the basketball. Every player wants to be a great shooter. Every player wants to be a great defender. Every player. Well, not everybody wants to be a great defender, which is unfortunate, because if you are a great defender, you're going to get a lot more playing time than if you aren't. But, you know, we'll hop into that at some point in this episode, too. But these players all have these massive goals. They want to play in college, they want to start on their varsity team, all These things. And to me, it's like, I look at the way that you work at it, and. And I can. Like, it's like, you tell me you want one thing, but, like, if you aren't willing to actually do the work to get it, then what do you. Like, what's the point? Like, why are you even saying it? You know, that's the thing. I'm. I'm actually had my cousin the other day, he FaceTimed me. He was like, hey, man, like, I see you're growing. Like, I didn't realize you were doing all this stuff. I think my first episode just came out. I was about to hit 2000 subscribers. Shout out to all you guys who are subscribed on YouTube. Just hit 2000 this past week. So appreciate every single one of you guys. And anyway, he called me, or he called me up and he was like, yeah, you know, like, I didn't realize you hadn't even told me that, like, you know, you were doing all this stuff. And I was like, here's my thing. I don't like to say. I don't like to tell people what I'm doing because anybody can talk, right? Anybody can say, oh, you know, I'm doing this and I'm doing this, that and all. Like, everybody does that. And you go on Instagram, you go on Twitter and Snapchat, it's always people flexing about what they're doing, you know, how they're successful, all this stuff. You know, 80% of that's not really the whole truth. And it's again, it's just highlights of their life. They aren't actually putting in the work. They're just. They want. But they want you to. They want to give that impression that they are. So that's why I'm just opposed to talking about what I do. I just. I like to do it instead. So, you know, I told him. I was like, listen, man, you know, I've. I've. I've grown. I've come. I've come away. Obviously, everyone starts with zero subscribers, zero followers. Nobody knows who you are. So to get to whatever the number is, that's cool to me. It's like, I still feel like I always have this sense of, like, I still haven't done anything, though. Like, cool, you know, you got 2,000 subscribers. Like, a few people know who you are. Cool. Now what? It's like, it's not really much when you look at the grand scheme of things. So to me, that's always been my outlook. So I told him like, listen, man, you know, I don't. It's not that I don't. It's not that I won't talk about it, but it's like, to me, it's like, I'd rather put all of my energy and focus into actually doing it, because that's what can't be refuted, right? You can talk about it. And some people say, oh, you know, he talks about it, but he doesn't actually do it. If you do it, then what is there to say? Like, you've done it. So that's kind of my issue when it comes to what a lot of players do. A lot of players will post on Instagram that they're working out, but are you really working out? Are you actually committed to it? Or is it that you just post whenever you go to the gym? Because it's not that it's kind of a rare occurrence for you, or it's not a very consistent occurrence for you. Now, not every player is like that. There's a lot of players who do post when they go to the gym, and they're in the gym all the time. Okay? But a lot of people are gonna try and make it seem one way, and then it's really not that way. So that's something that I feel like needs to be said. You know, really evaluate what your goals are and ask yourself, like, am I. Do I talk about doing something all the time? Do I tell everybody? Listen, I'm gonna do this. All right? I'm gonna do this. And look, here's the thing. It's cool if you do that. Now, I actually talked about in episode one, setting goals and not telling anybody about them, just having them be yours. Okay? Because again, it goes to this. You can talk about it, but the thing with talking about stuff is that sometimes it makes you feel like you've actually done something. Like, if you go tell somebody your big goals and they're like, wow, like, that's impressive. You're gonna do that. It kind of gives you a weird. Like, it's a weird thing with your brain where, like, it almost gives you the same feeling of you actually doing it and then them saying, like, oh, wow, good job. But you did that. But it's like, you didn't actually do that to me. I don't want that to ever affect how I do things. So that's why my personal opinion is that I just don't share. I just can't put my head down and do the work. But, you know, if that's not. If you don't agree with that, that's cool. But you got to make sure that you're actually, at the end of the day, if you're going to talk about it, you got to actually be about it too. And that's the thing. I never want to talk because I don't want to be the person who gets the reputation of saying things and then not delivering on them, okay? So that's just something to think about. The most important thing is action, okay? Words don't matter. They don't matter at all. What matters is how you act is the effort that you actually give. The work that you actually physically put in every single day. That's what matters. And it's funny talking about the work that's just like, guys, I feel like this is going to be a reoccurring theme probably every episode because it really, like it's the baseline of everything in basketball, but really in every aspect of life, it all starts with the work, with the work that you're willing to put in. And you know, I was thinking about this the other day. If I wasn't, if I didn't, if I wasn't vision driven basketball, I would be work driven basketball. And it's funny, so I was talking in episode, I think it was episode one, about what Vision driven Basketball actually stands for and what it means to have a vision. If you haven't seen that episode, make sure you check that out. But vision, that the thing after that is like, my next biggest thing is like, it's all about the work. Players will ask me, like, coach, how do I, like, how do I become more confident? How do, how do I get this? Like, how do I become, you know, how do I reach my goals or whatever? Like that. That's what I'll get in a lot of DMs and comments stuff. And to me, it all starts with the work that you put in. If you want to be confident as a basketball player, then you have. You better be confident in the work that you've put in. You better be confident in your abilities because you've put the work in. Because if you haven't put in enough work to be confident in it, you, you won't be confident. It's just, that's how life works. Okay? You can't. I always talk about the importance of self talk, the importance of, you know, giving yourself positive affirmations. That stuff is very important, in my opinion, because there's a lot of players who have put the work in, but at the same time, they haven't they still have negative beliefs about themselves which prevent them from actually executing on their with their abilities during games. But if you haven't put the work in, then no amount of mental training or self talk is going to make you confident. Because at the end of the day, you're going to think to yourself, man, I have not put the work in. You're going to step out on the court and you're not going to be confident that with the time that you spent on the court. And I think one of the biggest things is just again, when we talk about the work, you also have to evaluate what exactly that work is. And just on a side note, so for those of you who are subscribed on YouTube or follow me on Instagram, then you've seen that I just announced that the perimeter score system is going to be coming out on May 11th. Okay. So that's going to be eight days from when this podcast comes out. This podcast is going to come out on Sunday. So eight days from then, May 11, I believe that's right. That's when it's going to come out. So I just want to explain it a little bit real quick and I'm going to relate it back to what we were just talking about. So the perimeter score system, it's kind of been a. It's been in the works for a while now. I've wanted to do it for over a year, but it's been months that I've been building it. And, you know, it all started because I've been, you know, ever since I was a kid, I've been very involved with a lot of different online basketball training. I've tried out a lot of it, and a lot of the most popular stuff and a lot of it is, is just not very effective. And I look at it now, knowing what I know now, and I look at the drills that I was doing there and how I was laid out like, man, like, this is terrible. Like, kids are doing this stuff expecting to get a result and they're just not going to get it. So. And not all of it is bad. I mean, there's a lot of trainers out there who I love and I learn a lot from, you know, guys like D.J. sackman, Jordan Lawley, Tyler Ralph, Drew Hanlon, you know those guys. I learned a lot from those guys. Those guys are great. But there's other guys out there who, who are pretty popular too. And, and also, but I also don't feel like, you know, their, their training is all that effective, you know, nothing. Again, it's no personal thing as anybody, but that's just my own experience with a lot of it. Okay? Not all of it, but a lot of it. So I wanted to do something that would. I wanted to put something out that would get results for players. So that started the perimeter score system. But also I wanted to be more than that. I didn't want it to just be. Because it's not just about skill. Skill training is where it starts. Okay? Obviously you need that. Like I just said before, if you want to actually be confident in your abilities as a basketball player, you have to put the work in. So it all starts with skill training. But I realized that it's more than that too, because ever since I was young, I put like, I always put in the work. Like I never had issues doing that. But for me, a lot of it came down to just the mental part of it too. Okay? So I wanted to do something that was gonna help players with that as well. So it all started. I wanted to build the perimeter score system, but I want it to be a little bit different because I recognize that you, you know, a lot of these programs will be, you know, eight weeks, 12 weeks, and then it's like. And then, you know, the. Then what? Right? If you give me 12 weeks of training, I mean, first of all, there's 52 weeks in a year, so I need 40 more weeks. What am I going to do with those 40 weeks? But on top of that, I mean, what am I going to do in the next offseason? Because here's the thing, the work doesn't ever end. You don't ever get to a point where you're good enough. You always have to keep getting better. Because you get better or you get worse, you don't stay the same. If you don't get better, then people are going to catch up to you and essentially you're going to get worse because everyone's getting better, okay? So if you stay the same, you're actually getting worse. So your training needs to have that in mind where you have to be working at your game consistently and it can't really ever end. So I decided I wanted to be a year round system. So essentially I broke it up into three phases. There was offseason training, preseason training, and in season training. You know, obviously the bulk of your of your time is spent in the offseason. So that was a 16 week program I laid out for the offseason phase. And essentially that's where you get the bulk of your skill development in really working on a lot of detailed things, a bunch of different things. You know, shooting off the catch, off the dribble, ball handling, finishing, creating space, being able to create your own shot. You know, all different sorts of things like that that are going to help you develop your skills and actually become a player who can, who can get results on the floor. I wanted everything to be something that would directly translate to game results. A lot of my issues with these programs is that they objectively got me better skills. I became a better ball handler from a lot of these programs. I became a better shooter, but I wasn't actually able to use those skills in games because the difference between being a, a practice player and a game player, okay, you can be great at doing drills, but if you can't translate that to games, then you're not really a Hooper. Okay. Like you got to be able to translate what you practice into games. That was what I wanted to, to have with my, with the perimeter scores. It's. I wanted that to, that was my main goal. And so, you know, that was again, I felt like that needs to be a year round thing, so. And I also recognize that a lot of training kind of neglects in season training. And that was an issue I used to have is like, I get to the seat, it's the season, I'm like, oh, I'm practicing every day. So like I don't need to do anything extra. But you're not. Usually when you're practicing, it's all team stuff. So you want to make sure you're still getting skill work in. Right. Like, you don't. Because you don't necessarily have to get better over the season with your skills specifically, but you need to at least keep them to where you've built them to. So I, I included a bunch, some in season training too, where it's like 20, 30 minutes of. It's not, it's very different from the, the preseason or preseason off season training because that stuff is much more demanding. Really building your skills here we're really fine tuning. So you're shooting your ball, handling a little light, finishing, and it's something you can do. But you know, honestly, before, after practice, whenever you have time to do, I want it to be something that was simple but would allow you to maintain your skills and stay sharp throughout the season because obviously that's the most important time of the year when you actually are in your games. So that was one of my thoughts with that as well. But I also understood that it doesn't just stop with that. I wanted this to be A complete basketball development system. Like I didn't want it to just be skill training because it's not always easy to know how to apply that into games. And this is stuff I had to learn over years from multiple different sources. And I wanted to piece it all together into one thing. So I created two other things specifically that would help with that. One was the 20 points per game blueprint, which essentially is an intensive study film breakdown of college and NBA film where I'm basically explaining to you different techniques, different things to look for, basically how to become, how to score. Okay. Because it's not just as easy as, oh, I'm good, like I can just go out and score. Well, you know, you have to know how to score, you have to know when to score, you have to know what situation you're going to score at. Obviously basketball is played in, there's a certain flow to the game and it changes over time. So you know, back in, in the night, in the 80s and 90s, it was a much more of a post up ISO game, right? Every team had a big man. Every team that, you know, Shaq and Hakeem and every, like every team had, every team that won had a big, you know, David Robinson. So you had to have a big man and you'd post the big man up and you know, you'd have guys who play one on one. Now that's not how basketball is. You know, some teams have, if you have a really good big, you might play him. But typically even those base can shoot. Everybody's got to be a shooter these days. Basketball is much more free flowing. Typically that's how it's going to work. You're going to really push the pace. You got to have guys who can shoot and defend and attack, you know, at a closeout. So that was really what I focused the 20 points per game blueprint on is learning how to actually do those things at a high level. And we break down film of guys who do it really well. So you can see exactly how you can implement what you're learning actually into games. And that was something that I really had a good time making. I think it's really, really gonna help a lot of players out because a lot of players just don't have. It really is gonna help you to understand like how to develop your instincts when you play. Okay. Because that's a big part of being a great player is knowing, okay, when do I do this? When do I not do this? This is gonna give you cut and dry examples of what that actually looks like, so I think that's gonna be very effective, and that's gonna come with the perimeter score system. So if you join the perimeter score system, going to be with it then. The second part was the mental toughness masterclass, which is all about, you know, a lot of players, and I was like, this too feel like they have like an invisible ceiling over their head right where they. They work on their skills, like they're committed to it, but they just feel like when they get into games, it like they can't seem to get in the zone, they can't focus, they don't see the results that they feel like they should. So the mental toughness master class is all about helping with that. And this goes into mindsets, techniques, routines. I think routines are huge. And this goes in, this dives into that as well. Another thing I think is really going to help a lot of players, and it's something that I had to learn from a bunch of different sources over. Over a long time. So I kind of compiled that all into one. So both of those are going to come with the perimeter score systems. You've got your skills training, but also your actual development training. So that's going to piece together, truly make you a complete player. And then to add on to that, there's a couple of things that I wanted to do. So I have basically, it's called my VIP film breakdown where I'm going to go through film breakdown of, you know, NBA superstars. So specifically there's their scoring. So Kobe, Kevin Durant, LeBron, Steph, guys like that. And, you know, I'm taking through specific areas of their game that you can also learn from as well. Again, that's included with it. And, you know, all that together, I think really is going to improve players from like an overall development standpoint. Okay. Because I don't, again, I don't think it's enough to just have the skill part of it. I think you also should have the mental side of it too. Developing your instincts, all that stuff that's actually going to allow you to become effective as a basketball player. So the question that I got when I released a video talking about it on YouTube, like whatever, two or three days ago, and everyone was asking, like, oh, coach, is it free? Like, no, it's not. It's not free, guys. It's not free. And those details are going to come out this week, so. Or probably the end of the week, so we'll see. But stay tuned for that. The one thing I'll say is if you don't if you don't join, that's, that's fine. Like I'm gonna keep doing all of my free stuff. Like my workouts are still going to come out, still doing NBA player workouts, still going to put out shooting workouts, ball handling workouts, all that stuff. Still going to do my live ball handling sessions. Like, none of that's gonna change. This is just something that I think is really gonna help players and I, I can't put it on YouTube, you know, because I have to find a place to host it all. Obviously. I have to, I have to film and I have to actually make all of it and I just need to host another platform. So, you know, this is kind of a way that again, I can, I can help players who want to take that next step. Okay. And, and again, it's not, you know, won't be for everybody, I understand that. But you know, again, still a ton of, a ton of stuff on YouTube and I asked myself this question with everything that I do. So every workout that I've made on YouTube, obviously everything I've made with the perimeter score system, I ask myself, is this gonna get this player results? Like, is this gonna be effective? Because I'm not just gonna put something together that's gonna be a waste of time because how's that fair to people who trust what I have to say? And all of my stuff on YouTube is going to be that same exact, that same exact way. Okay? So that's not something that's going to change. So again, May 11th is when that's going to come out and I'm going to give you guys more details as it goes on for those of you who are interested and actually, even if you aren't, if you know, like, you know, I'm probably not going to, going to, going to join, but what I'm doing is I'm actually going to give you guys part of the 20 points per game blueprint. So I'm going to give you guys, it's about a 13 minute video. And in that video I explain defender control. So how to control your defender. The two ways that you can score off the dribble, specifically that you can kind of repeat. And so now again, you know what to look for and the two moves you need to develop to be able to actually do that. So that's kind of an all encompassing video. Even if you don't end up getting the full thing, it's going to help you out. So I would recommend that you guys do that. If you guys are interested in that I'm going to put a link to it in the description below. So go ahead and check that out. Also, it's on my video on YouTube that I posted a couple days ago. Highly encourage you guys to do that. And for the rest of you guys, you know, everything will come out, the information will come out as the week goes on. But again, very, very excited to get this started. And I, you know, I've heard from a lot of you guys who are excited to get going with it. So, you know, I'm glad that you guys are ready to go. But the reason I even bring that up now, obviously I want to give you guys a heads up, but that relates back into the work because players a lot of times will do work like they'll work at it, but the work that they're doing isn't actually that effective. And this is something that, that I've again, I personally struggle with. And I know I see a lot of players, I see firsthand players do it. They don't actually, they don't actually like the work that they're doing isn't going to translate to the games, right? Like, maybe all they do is, is, you know, these crazy moves that they're never going to do in the game, but they don't actually work on the simple things or it can be the other way around. All they do is the very, very simple things. All they do is figure eight ball handling every single day and you know, ball slaps every day. And then they think that they're going to become a great ball handler. Well, no, you can't just do those things, right? But a lot of players don't understand how to find that balance of the simple stuff, the fundamentals you need, but also the more advanced stuff that you know you're going to, that's going to allow you to pull that off into games. So that's part of it. And again, part of why I have the perimeter score system in every workout on my page. Again, every workout I think is effective depending on who you are, kind of tailored towards you. But I wanted to make sure that that was something that I thought about as well, is like, you know, is this going to allow the player to get results? Because a lot of players put in the work and they're still like, man, why am I not getting the results I want? And it's frustrating because I understand that same exact feeling. But you have to, you have to put in the right type of work. Okay? That's what it all comes back to. But again, aside from that here's the thing, even if you're putting in the wrong type of work, that's better than putting in no work at all. Because at least you're going to develop the toughness that's needed to consistently put in the work. And even you're still getting marginally better, but you're also gonna develop the mindset that you need to be successful. And so here's the thing with this, guys, I talk about. You have to be able to do the work, okay? Even when it's not fun, even when you want to just sit at home and play video games, you have to do the work. Because guess what? You want those big goals. So do every, so does everybody else. But also the work is just as hard for player A as it is for player B. Okay? Just because one guy might be better or one guy might have a different playing style, or he might be on social media talking about how much he works just because that's, that's that player, he's going to struggle with his, with, with actually going to put in the work every day just as much as you are. And guess what? Most people aren't committed to actually doing it every day. Like, they just aren't. Most players are going to, they're going to quit at some point and it might not be forever, but it might be like, eh, I don't feel like doing it today. So if you're able to overcome that and you're able to put the work in every day, you're able to set out a vision, set out a game plan and stick to it. Most people won't do that. So just by you sticking to it, doing the right type of work, giving 100% to it every single day, like you're gonna, you're gonna get a lot farther ahead than a lot of people who aren't willing to do that, okay? So that's a choice that you have to make as a player and you have to make if you, again, if you have those big goals that you guys all tell me about, well, you gotta determine how much am I willing to work for? Am I willing to be committed to it, okay? Because if you have a million dollar goal, I mean, what's the cliche saying, million dollar goal, you can never get that with a 10 cent work ethic. I mean, that's the example of it right there. So this is actually kind of funny. I got a couple questions that kind of relate back to this. So I put out a poll or a sticker on Instagram on my story, shout out to all you guys who ask questions, I'm gonna get to I think all of them here, but at least a few of them. So first one from Acash, he asked me what prevents people from reaching their goals? Mainly from what you seem. And this is going to kind of go back to what I was just saying, but, you know, it's hard to, it's. It's hard to be good, guys. It's really hard to be good at something. Okay? And I mean like, good at like a competitive level, okay? You might think you're good right now, but you got to look at where you're playing. You got to look at going forward, can I remain good? Can I still be good going forward? It's hard to do that and consistently do that. But even harder than that, I mean, the hard part is actually putting in the work necessary to, to be good at something. Like, that's the hard part because it's not just a one time thing, right? You can't buy, you can't just buy it. You can't just, you know, go work at your job and then bring home some money and buy the ability to be good at basketball. It's something you got to do every day. You got to put the, like, you got to work at it every single day. And that's hard. But again, that's the key part, guys. It's all about the work. And you know, not just doing the work, but, but good work, efficient work, work that's effective. Again, going back to what I was saying about the perimeter score system, you got to make sure the work you do is, is actually effective and it's efficient too. You're not just spending time on the court, you know, not doing, not, not actually getting as good as you possibly could. I think what it comes down to is that the players who succeed are the ones who are able to withstand being uncomfortable for long periods of time. Okay? They, they develop the mental toughness that it's required to get up every day, go to the gym and work hard and give 100% every single time. And that's difficult. And I think the players who don't succeed, I think the players who don't reach their goals are the ones who can't commit to doing that. I think those are the players who, you know, they can do it three times a week, but they can't do it four times a week. They can do it four times a week, they can't do it five times a week. I think the guys who succeed in the end are the ones who can do it every day. The ones who say, listen, I'm going to go to the gym five times this week, and they stick to it, and they go 100% the whole time. Because, like I said that. That in itself, I think putting in the hard work is one thing, but putting in hard work consistently, that's the hard part. That's the part that 90. That 90% of people just aren't very good at. And again, that's the reason why you see. You'll see such discrepancy at the top. You know, you see a guy like. You know, a guy like LeBron James was like, man, this guy can literally do everything on the basketball court. Obviously, incredible athlete, but guys, there's a ton of incredible athletes out there. There's a ton of guys who are great athletes who never make it in the NBA or they're role players. Why is LeBron different? Why is LeBron. I mean, I think it was. He hit 30,000 points, 7,000 rebounds, seven. 7,000 assists. I mean, no one's ever done that before. Why is he able to do that? I think it's because LeBron, over his entire life, has been able to put in consistent hard work every day. He's been able to put in the hard work that guys do. Guys in the. Obviously, everyone in the NBA has put in some. Some degree of work, but he's been able to do it consistently at a level that nobody else does it. And, you know, I hear a guy like Richard Jefferson, who obviously a former teammate of LeBron James, won a championship with LeBron. Cleveland was talking about how LeBron, the way he approaches basketball is just different than everybody else. It's just different, like, the intensity that he approaches his preparation with. Obviously, you guys have probably heard about how LeBron puts like a million dollars a year into his body just with different. Different, like, recovery and. And, you know, all the stuff that he does to be prepared for the grind of the NBA season, that pays off for him. He's willing to put in that consistent work, really invest into himself. That's what makes him different. Because a lot of guys aren't willing to do that. A lot of guys would rather spend a million dollars buying, you know, an extra vacation home in Florida, you know, as opposed to putting that million dollars into being the best player they can possibly be. And that. That. That right there is the difference. So, you know, we talk about just the importance of. Of being. Being committed enough to put in that work over, you know, a long stretch of time. I think LeBron is a great example of being able to do that. And I think at the same time, you know, players who might not succeed, I think it also can go back to not a clear vision. Again, I talk about the importance of having a vision. Why you need to know where you want to get to. Okay, But a lot of players will say, I want to be good, I want to be great. What does it mean that you want to be great? Like, what do you want to be great at? What are your actual goals? Where do you want to get to? Okay, what do you want to win? You got to ask yourself that. Players who have that in their mind, who know, like, this is what I want. I have this goal in my mind. This is what I want. This is where I want to get to. They're going to be the ones who are able to put in that consistent work. So you want to know how to be, how to get comfortable being uncomfortable and how to actually be able to put in that consistently hard work. You have to have a vision. You have to know this is what I want and this is what it's going to take. So I'm going to lay it out, okay, I want this. I know that if I want that, I'm going to have to put in this amount of work. And then you got to stick to it. That's how you get that sort of consistency. And I think that players who succeed are the ones who have that. I think players who don't succeed are, are, you know, the guys who don't do that. So. And you know, that kind of, that kind of leads me into my next point, which is essentially like many players, like, they just don't have the perseverance to succeed. So I actually, I look at a guy like CJ McCollum for example. I think that's a great example. He obviously three star recruit out of Ohio, out of Canton, I believe may or may not be right, but I think he was out of Canton and ends up going to play at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, which obviously not known for its basketball, but has a great career at Lehigh and ends up getting drafted. First player, first basketball player to ever get drafted at a Lehigh gets drafted by Portland, goes there. Actually he got hurt his senior year, gets hurt as a rookie, so misses a lot of time as a rookie, gets back, ends up in the G league to start, I think was the D league at the time. And so, you know, the guy who gets drafted, he's playing the D league now, isn't getting minutes in the NBA really all of a sudden. As a second year guy starts to get a little bit of playing time. He still isn't starting, but you know, he works his way up, becomes a starter. And then, you know, now we look at it now, CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard, that's, that's, you know, one of the best backcourts in the NBA. So C.J. mcCollum goes from a guy who couldn't get NBA minutes to now we're like, oh yeah, him and Dame are whatever, a top three, top five backcourt in the NBA. And the funny thing with CJ McCollum too, is that he has yet to make an All Star team. I actually looked at this the other day. He has not made an all star team yet. And his numbers are good, but he just, again, he's kind of been a victim of where he plays. Like he plays in the west and there's a lot of, I mean, just incredible guards in the West. So he hasn't been able to make a team yet. But here's the thing, guys, like just seeing how Cej McCollum has overcome everything from being a three star to going to lay high to, to then making it to the NBA, from being the first guy to ever do that, to then after that becoming a starter in the M, like winning most improved player in the NBA. I mean, the way that I've seen him progress, you know, I think at some point he'll, he'll get that next, he'll take that next step and he's going to be an All Star. I just think from the work that he's put into this point, you can tell that he's built like that. Okay, a lot of guys aren't built like that. A lot of guys are not built to overcome that sort of adversity that they're going to face. I think players who can put in consistent work and then when they get hit with adversity, they get hit with injuries, they get hit with lack of playing time, they still find ways to overcome it. And again, all starts with the work that they put in. So they put in the work. Whether or not they see the results right away, that's not the issue. They're committed. Like, you know what? I might not see it right now, but down the line, this will pay off for me. I think that's what separates the players who don't make it from the players who do make it. So, you know, I got a couple, I got a couple other questions about specifically actually how to. How So I got a question about how to schedule strength and muscle workouts together. And this is a great question, actually, because shout out to Jacob for this one. Essentially, like, I put up my, my strength video, like my strength training program on YouTube. So if you guys haven't seen that, check it out. But I start off the video saying if you don't, if you aren't committed to the weight room and getting stronger, like, you're not a serious basketball player. And I stand by that a hundred percent. Because the guys, if you want to actually get to where you want to get to, then, then you, you have to be in the weight room, because everybody is in the weight room. Okay? Like, this is not, this is not the 1980s or 90s when you could be in the NBA and, you know, not. Not have lifted a weight in your life. Okay? But obviously LeBron couldn't have played then. So that, that was sarcasm, guys, if you guys didn't. But that's, that's a whole different point. I could. I digress. I don't want to go down that road right now. But all that being said, guys, if you are not in the weight room getting stronger, and obviously right now we can't get the weight room. I understand that. So if you're not at home working on your strength, then you're not a serious player. You know, you're. You, you might love basketball, but you're not serious about it. Because if you were, then you would understand that you're going to do everything possible to win, to succeed. And if you're gonna. If there's a weakness in your game, you can't allow that to stay. So this question specifically, you know, how do you schedule strength and basketball workouts together? It's a really, a case by case basis. So for me, personally, I didn't like lifting right after I would play basketball, especially if it was like legs or something. I just, I. I just feel so gas. I'd rather do it once in the. Or one in the morning, one at night. So what I would do is I would. I usually would lift in the morning, and this kind of goes into my next one, which is logistics. But I would lift in the morning and then I would usually play basketball or have my work or whatever in the midday or afternoon or even depending on how many workers I had that day. But you have to look at your own, like your own case by case example. So logistically, like getting a ride to wherever you need to get to, like, you got to look at how, how crowded is the gym, all that stuff that isn't Necessarily, you don't really think about it first. But what's going to allow you essentially to get into the best, most consistent routine. Because that's where it starts. You got to have a great routine. If you have a great routine, you're going to be able to stick to it more often. Like I said, guys, the people who win are the guys who can consistently stick to doing that good work, that hard work every day. If you can develop a routine, it's going to be easier to stick to as opposed to you being like, okay, today I'm going to do this and tomorrow I'm going to switch up and do that. And then I say I'm going to do something different than that. If you say, okay, I'm going to go do my strength workout in the morning and then my basketball workout in the afternoon, or I'm going to do my basketball workout in the morning and my strength workout in the afternoon. Or if you want to do them one after the other, maybe you like doing them. You say, okay, I want to go in the morning, I'm going to do my basketball workout, then I'm going to lift. The one thing I will say I wouldn't recommend lifting and then playing basketball just because I feel like priority wise you should get your basketball work in and then do all your strength stuff. But again, you know, if, maybe that, maybe it works for you to do it the other way, that's cool. But you got to look at it case by case. And you know, my, my quarantine video that I put out talking about your quarantine schedule and like what should look like kind of, kind of goes with this. Like just have a, just have a schedule. Like have a heavy consistent plan that you can follow through that's gonna allow you to actually see like sustained results. Because it's not good enough to just do the work a couple times. You want to make sure that you're doing it every day. And, and it's easy to not. It's easy to kind of fall off track when you aren't. When you aren't. You know, we never. Because it's a schedule that you stick to. Okay? So that's kind of, kind of a part of it. So that leads me actually into another question from Jacob that I got. He was asking about how to get good sleep before a morning workout, which is another good question too, because you know, a lot of players will have their, whatever their 5:36am workouts. And I mean, here's the thing, rest and recovery is extremely important. And A lot of young players, like, ignore it because it doesn't feel that importance. But. And you know, I used to do this too. Like I'd have a workout at 5:30 or 6 and I'd be like, oh, whatever, I'll go to bed midnight, I'll be fine. But if you really want to see the best results and you want to recover, because again, like, sleep has such a big impact on you as an athlete. So the biggest thing for me is like, you have to set up your life around, actually set your life around your workouts. So if, you know, I have a workout tomorrow, six, at six in the morning, I got to make sure I'm in bed by 9:30 so I can be asleep by 10. That means that when I get home from school, obviously not school right now, but if, when we're back in school, I gotta, when I go home from school, I gotta get my homework done so that, you know, I can make sure that the evening is free. I can do whatever I need to do in the evening. Then I gotta go and be in bed by 9:30 so I can be asleep by 10 so that I'm at my peak tomorrow morning when I have to get up and go work out, okay? That way I'm gonna get the most out of my workouts. Again, I talk about how important it is to be efficient with your work. You gotta make sure that you get the most out of your workout. And if you are sleeping seven to 10 hours, that your body's gonna be at its best. And that means you're gonna get the most out of the workout. Meaning you could put in the same amount of work as your teammate. But if your teammate is only getting five hours of sleep per night, you're getting eight. Well, all of a sudden it's gonna be a different story even if you put in the same amount of work. Okay? So you gotta understand that. So that's really what it comes down to. I think it's very simple. I think it's just, listen, you want to see the best results, go to bed earlier. And that's hard to do, especially for players who it's not natural to, you know, go to sleep early, wake up early. But that's just something that you got to build as a habit. So you know, just, just try it out. Be like, okay, 9:30, go into bed, turn my phone off and I'm gonna get my sleep. And then once I'm done with my workout in the morning, I can get back to whatever else I want to do. But getting your Work done early, setting up your schedule around that I think is very effective long term for, for being able to get that work done. So then I got a question from, from Brian and he was asking me, what do you value most when playing basketball? So offense and defense. And so what do you value most on that side of the ball? And for me, you know, offensively, I'll answer that first. I value ball movement and guys who just know how to play. So that, that's the. Because when I see that, I can tell that that guy's played a lot of basketball, you know, and to me, that, that leads into. He's committed to it. But in today's age. I kind of talked about this earlier, but there's a certain flow to basketball. A lot of it is perimeter oriented, ball movement, shooting. Okay. Ball movement is such a massive part of basketball these days. Okay. This is not 2000 anymore. You can just have Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady in every team going one on one with guys. That's just not how it works. Now all of a sudden this is all about ball movement, shooting. So it all starts with that ball movement, being able to push the ball at the floor, finding the open guy. And the teams who do that well are teams who are successful. As a coach, I love guys who move the ball well, who know when to make that extra pass, who know when to take the shot, and guys who just who make the right play. Okay. Because that's. That, that's developed through playing basketball. Okay. Defensively, this is the big part for me. Defensively, I value guys who do the little things. Like I value guys who talk. It's crazy to me how difficult it is for some players to talk when playing. But it's. It's like great teams are teams who talk, who communicate on defense. Because basketball is a team game. So when you're playing individual defense, you're. You're going to lose to teams who are better than you. But if you want to actually compete, you got to be a team that has five guys who are together playing as one unit. And that's what the best teams do. So I value guys who make plays like that, but I also value guys who do selfless things. Again, guys who are just the consummate team players on defense. They talk, which is not. Talking is one of the most selfless things you can do on the basketball court because you're helping out your teammates. You're letting teammates know what, when a screen's coming, let them know you're at help. Letting them know that You've got the ball, let them know that the shots gone up, all those things are helping out your teammates. That's going to make the team better. Listen, here's the thing. If you want to make your team better, you don't have to be the best player on the court, but when you're on the court, talk on defense. That's going to elevate the defense of all of your teammates. Even if you're the worst defender on the floor, that's going to elevate the play of the rest of your teammates. That's going to make them better, therefore making your team better. I mean, coaches want guys who do that. And that's the reason why the best teams are the ones who talk. Because they aren't. Usually they're out there. They're all good athletes, they're all good defenders, but because they talk to each other, they elevate each other's game. So they go from good to great. That's, that's the value of talking on defense. The other thing going along with that is I value guys who, who do things like take charges. Man, I love guys take charges because again, that's, that's, that's one of those, like, I'm all for the team. And more than that, those are the guys who really care about winning. That's a winning play. It's not a play that shows up in the stat book. You don't get put on overtime or slam or ball is life or taking a charge. What happens is you win more basketball games when you have guys take charges. The best teams I've played on are the guys who are teams that have multiple guys who take charges, multiple guys who are willing to take charges, who try to take charges. The worst teams that I've played on are the ones who have guys who are scared to take charges, who don't care enough to take charges, who don't want to win enough to take charges. So evaluate that for yourself. And that with defense, man, that's, that's just all about wanting to be good. That has nothing to do with skill. You don't have to, you don't have to put in any work to actually do that. All this you have to know is positioning, and you just have to go try and do it. And it's crazy that more players don't do it. We're going to get into another question that's going to relate to this, but it's just, it's funny, Ryan also asked me, he asked me, what should players value? So, so That's a good question, too. You know, I put a. I put a video out on this, talking a little bit about, like, my issues with some of the mixtape channels. And I feel like they encourage. They encourage selfish basketball. They encourage a me first attitude. They encourage. They encourage basically things that detract from winning, in my opinion. And so I think that the misconception now is that players think they have to. They have to score 25 points to be effective for their team. But it's. It's really. That's really not it. I think that one of the biggest things you should value is what you can. What you can contribute to the team, and that's going to look different for everybody. So I actually got a question from Ian. He was saying, you know, what things do varsity college coaches look for when they talk about putting guys on the roster? And I kind of talked about this a little bit before when I talk about, you know, college, the college podcast, which was last podcast, so check that out if you haven't seen it. But essentially I was saying that, you know, the. The important part is you have to recognize where you can contribute to the team. So not Everybody can score 25 points a game. That's fine. You don't have to be that way. And it's funny because at once, you especially once get to the college level, everybody can play. Everybody can play. And I talked to, or I talked to, I listened to a podcast with Nasir Little, who played for the Tar Heels last year, and he plays for Portland now. I believe he's a rookie, I think, because I believe he played. I believe he was in college last year. But he was talking about going from high school to college to the NBA. And he was saying, like, you know, I was in high school, I could do whatever I wanted, okay? Because I was better than everybody. And in high school, really, it was just like, you know, play, like go score, right? There was no real system. We had to run, which is go score. Just go be better than everybody. But he said, when I got to college, all of a sudden that changed because now I'm at North Carolina, got Roy Williams as my coach. We have a system that we have to run. I can't just go down and score every time because first of all, guys are too good now, like, I'm playing in a whole different level of competition. He was saying that the difference between high school and college is that you're going to walk into a gym and for practice or whatever, and you might have been the best scorer in high school, but the guys that you're going to be on the team with, you're going to have juniors and seniors now who are better scorers than you because they were great scores in high school, too. And now they've had two years to develop at the college level, so they're going to be the scorers in the team. So if you, as a freshman come in, you can't do anything else other than score well, you're not going to play right away. You're not going to be able to contribute right away, and it's going to be tough for you. So he was saying, like, what else can you contribute to the game, to the team? Are you just a player who scores because there's guys again at the college level, everybody can play. Okay, but what are the other things that you contribute? So he was saying, for example, he was saying when he got to the NBA, he's now playing on Portland. So he's playing on a team with Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Carmelo Anthony. There is no shortage of scorers on that team. So he understands that, like, okay, you know what? My job is not to score. Now, when I get playing time, and I believe he started a couple games this year, he's saying, when I, When I get playing time, like, my goal is not to score. My goal is to. He was saying that his goal now is like, I want to get five plus rebounds a game. If I look at the score sheet after, and I had eight rebounds and zero points that we won the game. That to me is a great game. So all of a sudden, his mindset, his mindset shifts from I got a score to how can I contribute and help a team? How that relates to you, Ian, is you have to have another part of your game, okay? You can't just be a scorer. That's not that. That's important, okay? Because you want to, you want to be able to score, but you also have to be. Here's my thing. If you can score, you can play great defense, you're gonna be able to contribute to teams, especially, you know, at the high school level, if you can play defense and you can score. I was talking about, again, the flow of basketball now, where it's ball movement, shooting, pushing the pace. If you have guys who can hit threes, can play good basketball and can play defense, I mean, that's, that's, that's what every coach wants. Now at the high school and college level, too, you guys who can, who can shoot, play great defense and knows how to move the ball. Well man, those are the three things. So even if you get to the college level and you got guys who are better scorers than you, as you probably will unless you're a top 1% scorer coming out of high school, you're now all of a sudden going to be able to play because you are a great defender and you can make the right play. Okay? And then as you develop a bit more, you're going to be able to step into that scoring rule. But all of a sudden you gain minutes because you now have another skill, have another dimension to your game. Okay? So for example, when coaches go and recruit, they're not just looking for oh, I want to find the guy who can drop 30 every game. Honestly, I was actually listening to a, it was, I was on a zoom call with some coaches the other day. They were talking about, they're all three or five college coaches from New Jersey, from different colleges in New Jersey. And they were talking about like they don't just like they'll get highlights sent to them. It'll be some kid who can, who scores 30 points a game, but he also takes 25 shots a game. They're like, I don't want this kid. Like I don't need a kid who's going to jack up 20 plus shots a game. Like that's just not going to work at our level. They're looking for the kids who are efficient, okay? They're looking for a kid, you know, we need a point guard. So we're going to find a kid who can run his offense well, is tough, great ball handler, great vision, is a leader on the floor. That's who we're bringing in this year. It's not always about how good you are, it's about what role you can fill for a team. Okay, that, that goes for every level, high school and college as well. So think about what your, what your best two or three skills are and develop them. Don't be a one dimensional player that's going to allow you to contribute to the team regardless of who else is on there. And especially with those broad skills, shooting and defense. Those are, those are the two things right there where if you could do those things at a high level, you're going to be able to just plug and play anywhere. And then obviously you add in like if you have any sort of size or you're a good athlete, that's just again going to increase the ceiling that you have. If you have those two skills and then whatever your measurables are, okay? But even if you don't have that. I had somebody asked me about, you know, what they should do for an undersized guard. And I was saying, like, listen, for you, as, as an, as an undersized guard, that just all of a sudden means that you need to be great at shooting, be great at ball handling and you've got to, you got to be a great defender. Now obviously if you get matched up on a bigger guy, you might get scored on, but when you're guarding a point guard, you got to be great at it. Okay? So that, that goes for both sides of it. But again, that, that's really what I'm, what I'm talking about. So I also look at a guy like Kawhi Leonard, where Kawhi Leonard came in the league and he averaged 7.9 points per game as a rookie, but he played 24 minutes a game as a rookie because of his defense. Okay? He came in the league and he could play defense. So he got to play on a great spurs team. I mean for, with, with hall of Fame teammates. Hall of Fame, maybe the best coach of all time. He got playing time as a rookie because of his ability to play defense. And as you've seen, he's developed over the years. He went from 7.9 points per game as a rookie to 27 a game this past year with the Clippers. And he's developed his three point shot, he's developed his ability to attack his post game. I mean he is, he's one of the most complete players in the NBA now. But he didn't start off that way. He realized like, listen, I have Tim Duncan, Manu, Tony Parker, guys who, a bunch of role players on the spurs team who could score. I. My way to get playing time off the bat is to play good defense. And that's what he did. He took that springboard to say, okay, as the year goes on, year two, year three, year four, now I'm the guy on the Spurs. I go from being roll guy to the guy and all starts with what else he could contribute. If he had come in the league and he couldn't play defense, all he could do is score. I don't know if we're talking about the same Kawhi Leonard who's got two, two titles. I don't know if we're talking about that guy. I think him, him being able to play defense is what propelled him forward. So now look at a guy like Marcus Smart too. So Marcus Smart on the Celtics is over the past few years, I mean, they've had some really loaded guard groups, like just, just crazy groups of guards and slash wings. And Marcus Smart has probably been the least talented offensively out of all those guards, yet he's still in the starting lineup a lot of the times because he's one of the best defenders in the NBA. And I also looked at Marcus Smart's numbers. He went from something really low, like six or seven points per game as a rookie to, I mean, he's. He was averaging over 13 and a half this year. So again, he's been able to develop his offensive game. But it all started with, how can I get on the floor? Well, I'm going to play great defense and then I'm going to develop my game after that, going along with that. So really for all that, it starts with don't be one. Don't. Don't be one dimensional. That's what I would say to you. So, last thing I want to talk about today, guys, I got another question. This is from Matt. He was asking you should talk about, you know, yourself growing up, like if you were really good at a young age or you got good later, and about your club, AAU school ball. And I got a couple guys who asked me about AAU because a couple guys are from different countries. So they were asking about like how it works over here with that and compared to their country, Chile and Canada specifically. So I'll talk about all that kind of stuff. So, you know, I started off, played basketball growing up, you know, my whole life. But it got, I got serious about it in seventh grade. That was when you had to try out for the school team and you know, all that stuff. Now all of a sudden it's like you get to leave school early, go on bus rides. Like, I'm like, man, this is like, I like doing this. But I wasn't that good at it. So I'm like, well, now if I'm going to do something, I may as well be as good as I possibly can be at it. So that led me into becoming, into wanting to work at it. And you know, seventh grade year I was in and out of the starting lineup. Probably started most games, but also I started four that year because I was, I was just bigger than everybody. Then everyone caught up to me. I'm not that big now, but back then I was playing the four and so worked at the off that eighth grade off season or going into eighth grade and by the way, didn't know what I was doing. That was back when I still thought that working out for eight hours a day was the best way to get better, it's not just so you guys know, but still managed to get decently better to where the next year I was starting. I started that the whole season at the two for the. For our eighth grade team. And that was good. I mean, we had two. Got two D1, two D1 athletes on that team. Like, that was a good team. And so that propelled me into ninth grade. Ninth grade was a rough year for me. Got hurt beginning of the year. Had a bunch of other issues with. With just that team in general. But 10th grade year played JV. If you guys. I talked about in the last podcast, I think was the last. Maybe the first one. No, it was the last one. Talking about how. Talking about how like how loaded our team, our. My class was at the school I was going to then. But yeah, so my sophomore year played jv. I mean, that was another team where it's like any other year. A lot of those JV kids are probably very much contributors on the varsity team. We had a lot of juniors playing down. Actually, I think we, I think we lost one or two games JV that year. We were like 21 or 22 that year. And you know, the next year I transferred to a Catholic school. Started as a junior, didn't have a great season. We were about 500 that year. But came back, worked at it. Senior year started again. We were much better that year. Much better season for me personally. We were, I think, 20 and 7. Best record of school history, conference championship, first ever district championship appearance, first ever, ever state playoff appearance in school history. So great years. As for my senior year. And then obviously I talked about my. The whole college thing in the last episode. So episode two, check that out if you haven't seen it. But, you know, also AAU is a big question that I got. So we'll talk a little about that. But my AU experience started off when I was in 8th grade. So this is 14U. And a lot of countries are similar to this where they have like a rec team or a club team. And this is. It's kind of the same thing though, the way I'd say it is in America, typically the best players play that. That. So for some countries, AAU or club is better than high school basketball. In America, high school basketball is still. It's still the top dog. That's what coaches care about. That's what people. People care about. There's just the whole school pride thing. So high school basketball is still number one. Okay. Winning a state championship in, in high school basketball Is. Is, to me, more impressive than a lot of other things you could do with aau. Winning a conference championship in high school. That's something you. You care about more than winning a. Winning a tournament in AAU. So. So. But for me, I started off in 8th grade and played for. Play for a team that was about 45 minutes away from where I live. And it was. It was. It's interesting. So I look back on that team, and we had. So we had about. Oh, man, that was. It was crazy. We had, like, probably 12 or 14 guys, and we would actually bring three teams to tournaments we played at. Now, we played at some really good tournaments, but we'd bring, like. We bring a 12U team. We bring a 14U team, which was my age if I was 14, and then we'd bring a 16U team. We had a couple older guys, too, so we. We would play three divisions, and we'd go there. We'd have, like, six or seven guys who could play 12U. We'd have those guys plus a couple other guys who play 14U. And then we'd have a couple guys. We'd have. All the guys played 16U. So I ended up playing 14U and 16U for that team at these tournaments. And it's so funny because I think we won. I think we won one game the entire AAU season that year. Spring, summer, I think we won one game. And. And, man, but. But some of my. My best memories playing basketball with that team going. We'd all load up in a van, and our coach would drive us to these tournaments. We'd stay in hotels and, like, man, that. That's. That's like. That's the most fun thing ever. Just, like, playing basketball with your guys. We lose a lot. I mean, we were outmatched a lot of times. So, like, we. Again, I'd be playing up. I'd be playing up in 16U with some really good players, and we just didn't have the depth to compete with. With these teams. But I think that was a very valuable experience for me personally, because it really eliminated the fear of losing at that point. Like, a lot of players will say, like, they'll, like, be in awe. They'll walk into a gym, and the team that they're playing will, like, have. They'll be bigger or they'll have a guy who they. Oh, he can dunk. Be like, guys like, you know, that was kind of a thing that I went through, but eventually it's like, you just get numb to it. It's like you know what? Okay. Yeah, they're big. They can dunk. Everybody can. Everybody can dunk. So you kind of get numb to it, and then eventually it's like you don't even care. Like, you don't even. I mean, you care about losing, but you don't. You don't fear losing anymore. You don't fear playing at somebody who might be better than you. I think that's a big thing that players can take from playing good competition. It's like you just. Eventually you stop being afraid of losing. You just go out and play. So. But again, I mean, even losing those games, that was one of the most fun times ever. Just again loading up in a van with 12 other guys and driving to Maryland or New York or wherever we were, Philly, Wherever we were playing, and then just going in there and, man, some of those stories that I have from there, just different. So anyway, then after that, my ninth grade year would have been 15. You played on a different team out of Harrisburg. This team was much better. We were. We were. We had a lot of guys. We have a few guys who played in college from that team. But, you know, we played really good tournaments there, too. Didn't win any tournaments, but won more than one game the whole year. So that was. That was nice. That was. That was fun, though. I enjoyed that good experience again, playing good competition. My coach that year was. He was. He was. Honestly, I'm gonna have to do an episode just on my coaches that I've had because I've had some interesting coaches, but he's one of them. So then my 10th grade year, which would have been 16U, that was the last year AAU actually played and played for another team, a different team out of Harrisburg, a little outside of Harrisburg, actually. And this was the best team I've probably ever played on. They every player on that team, except for two, are playing in college right now. Now they're football or basketball. So, I mean, just the level of competition that we had on that team itself was good. I mean, we won at least two tournaments that year. I mean, some of the best guys I played with were on that team. And that was a lot of fun just being around guys like that. Just level of competition. The level of competition and practices, too, was great and definitely helped me moving forward into being able to step into my high school team, which wasn't as competitive as that team, and really feel confident being a leader on that team. And, you know, here's the other thing, too, is, like, when you play aau, you play Competition like that when you get to the high school season, most teams you play won't be as good as teams you play at some of those tournaments. Like you're gonna be like, oh wow, like I'm playing these guys now. And I was just playing a team that was way better. So that's one upside, I think of the AAU right there. And it was funny actually that that AAU team that I played on my 16, my 16 year, I ended up not playing the next year, which would have been my last year, 17U. Because I wanted to just focus on getting better. A lot of time I felt like I was playing catch up with guys and so I decided that I wanted to just focus on, on getting better and on team stuff. So every team event I was at just getting ready to try, just, I just wanted to win the district that next year. That was all I cared about. So. And getting to the states obviously. So that was all I, I focused on the next year and stepping into it. You know, after that. It was funny because I talked to my coach from that team, from my AAU team the next year I was at a showcase and he was, he was like, oh man, we missed you this year. And I was like, oh yeah. Like, you know, and we were talking about where his, his son was going to go play, but they actually had a kid who joined the team that year who I believe, I mean he would, he would have been the best player on the team most likely. And he was, he was the first team all state his as a senior and actually I believe he was a all American at the D3 level this year. And if he wasn't, he will be next year for sure. Kid could play. But I really would have loved to play with another player like that. So you know, I kind of wish I might have, might have done that as a junior. But you know, it is what it is. I think it worked out pretty well in terms of what my senior year looks like. So anyway, a lot of players, like people ask like, you know, what's the value of playing aau? And I think it's different from depending on where you are. You know, obviously if you're a really high level player and you want to play at the college level, I read like AAU is pretty much necessary because college coaches are going to be at a lot of these live tournaments in the spring and summer and a lot of times it's hard for them to see you necessarily discover you during the high school season because they have their own season now. They do Go out and watch games during the winter. But it's more likely they'll do that if they go to a tournament, see you play there. Like, oh, we like this kid. We'll go see him play in the winter, too. That's more likely how it's gonna happen. Actually, I had another person ask me about how to get a coach come see you play. Couple, couple ways you could do that. You could send them film of yourself, and that could spark them to be like, oh, let's go see if this kid is what he is on film. And they'll go see you in person, or they might see you at an AU tournament, and then they'll be like, okay, we're gonna go see this kid play again. So those are your. Basically your two options when it comes to that. But like I talked about my last podcast, essentially just be really good at basketball and they'll see that and they'll want to see you play more. So that's, that's the thing. But, you know, AAU is not for everybody, in my opinion. Like, I think if you're not, if you, if you really aren't very good, and you gotta be honest with yourself with this, like, a lot of times a. You can be a money grab where it's like, these programs will put out these teams, and it's like, what is actually the value of playing? Like, you're playing terrible tournaments that no coaches go against terrible competition. You're just really spending money when you could be spending money and time getting better so you can play on a better team, that's going to get more exposure. You know what I'm saying? So there's value in both because you need to play. There needs to be a balance between playing and training, which, again, I'm not trying to keep going back to this, but it just keeps coming up. That's part of the premise course, too. I have our workouts, obviously, but then we also mixed in what's called live days, which essentially is where you're going to play. So, because I understand that you can have all the skills developed, but if you don't actually learn how to apply those into the game, then it's kind of. It's kind of not really worth anything. So you have to. You have to know how to actually use those skills in games. So to me, that was, that was a big part of it. And that's another. Another value part of aau. You know, you play against great competition. Like I just said I would play against some of these teams. I still remember My, my sophomore year, so 16U. When I was playing with my last AU team, we went to a tournament in New York. We were playing against the number, I believe they were ranked number 19 or 20 in the country. And we ended up losing by like two or three points. Like, it was close. And I mean, that level of that, that team we played against. Stuff, like, I didn't see any team as good as them in high school, like in the, in the, in the regular season, like in the winter season. Like, I didn't see any team that was as big or as athletic, as skilled as them, and most players won't. So I go from playing against that level of competition to I go to play in season next year, and I'm like, really? This is who I'm playing now. So that's kind of a benefit of playing aau, is you get to play against great players. But again, you need to make sure you're actually on a team that's going to play against great players. If you're just playing on a team that plays, you know, these local terrible tournaments, then it's like, how much value is it? It's still playing, which you got to evaluate what level you're at, but just understand what, what your goals are. So if your goal is, listen, I want to play in the college level, I'm good enough. I think I'm good enough, too. And I can get playing time. I can get playing time, keyword, playing time on a good team that's going to play at good tournaments. If you can do that, then I think AAU is worth it. And I think you'll get. You'll get stuff out of it. But if it's. If you're saying, I just want to play basketball, but I'm not very good and I'm going to play on a bad team, may or may not even get that much playing time, then it's like, I think you're better off just working on your skills, just taking the entire offseason, work on your skills. Maybe the next year you're good enough to where you can play on a decent team and get playing time. But at the end of the day, it all comes down to how good you are. Because, listen, no matter how good the team is you play on, you got to have the skills to do it and to get to where you want to get to. So that's my thoughts on aau. I'm not one of these AAU haters. I think AAU has its place. I mean, I coach an AAU team So, and you know, that's the thing. We see our guys go play against this level of competition, then come back to where we live and it's like they're playing guys who are way better than the guys they're going to play here. So. And those guys on my team are like, they're pretty good. So that, that I think helps them to raise their own game when they have to go against guys who are really, really good and they're going to be like, oh man, like, how am I going to adjust? You got to raise your level when you go against guys like that. So just evaluate that for yourself. So, you know, a couple other questions I got talking about how to beat full court pressure and change of pace. This came from Jason and to me this kind of goes hand in hand in a way. You know, if you want to be full court pressure, change of pace is huge with that. And so it all starts with your ability to handle the basketball, obviously. But I also think if you. So what I would recommend you do is you watch guys like Chris Paul or James Harden or Kyrie Irving. Watch them handle pressure. Okay. Like for example, in the NBA there's not a ton of full court pressure. But what teams will do if they have a great defender is they'll like, if he knows on Marcus Samara or Patrick Beverley, they'll put him on their point guard coming up the floor. Because obviously you have a 24 second shot clock in the NBA, so the longer it takes them to get up the floor, the less time they actually have to run an offense. So that's kind of a thing. So a point guard in the NBA knows like, I gotta, I not only have to beat this pressure, but I have to beat it quickly. So we have time to make, to make something happen on offense. So watching guys like that beat pressure, I think is a great way to learn how to do it. Now in high school can be different because there's a lot of times teams will give you like a, like a full court zone press because players aren't as good. Like if you zone press in the NBA, you're just gonna like, you just can't. Guys are too good to do that. But in high school you can do that. And typically you can't dribble through a press unless you're a really good ball handler or the other team is terrible at pressing. So. But if we're talking man press, then I think practicing against pressure, so just playing, you know, if you have a teammate or something you practice with, you say, hey, let's play some full court. One on one or half court? One on one. We start a half court. We got to play defense. Like, I think that in itself is going to help you with that. Working on your ball handling, of course. And then watch these guys watch Chris Paul handle pressure, watch James Harden handle pressure, watch Kyrie Irving handle pressure. And I think that, you know, Steve Nash, watch him handle pressure. I think that's going to help you to learn that as well. So, you know, I know this was a long episode. Appreciate all you guys for, you know, sticking through with me. If you guys enjoyed this and you guys are listening on Spotify or on Apple podcasts, I would really appreciate you guys will leave a review for me. If you're on YouTube, hit that like, button. Subscribe too. Really appreciate that as well. Like I say, every episode, guys, if you have any questions you want me to answer, anything you want me to talk about on the podcast, make sure you guys leave a comment or DM me on Instagram because, you know, I'm always looking to again give you guys what you want. Again, this interactive thing. I don't want this to just be me talking about what I want to talk about. I want to talk about what you guys want to hear. Okay? So I only can do that if you guys DM me, leave comments, all that stuff. Thank you to everybody who has left comments and DMS too. You know, if I. If I don't answer your question completely, then let me know, okay? And I'll try and do a better job explaining it the next week. But again, just, just to kind of bring it all full circle. It all starts with the work, guys. So make sure that you're putting that work, that you have your schedule and you stick to it and you want to get to where you want to get to be about the work. Okay, that's it. Peace.