Why Watching More Basketball Will Make You A WAY Better Player (Do This!) - Podcast Episode 105

Welcome to the Visionary Ambassador Trading Podcast. Appreciate you guys tuning in today. Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, Google Podcast, wherever you're listening from. And of course everybody right now who's watching on YouTube. I appreciate you guys. So I just learned, apparently you can watch the video version on Spotify now. So if you're on Spotify, you might be able to see that. You might not be, I don't know, I gotta figure that out. So hopefully if you're on Spotify right now, you can also watch the video as well. Obviously you guys on YouTube, you're watching right now like subscribe if you're new, drop a comment. Let me know if you guys got anything from this podcast. You guys, any questions, suggestions for me, I really do appreciate you guys on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Leave a review for me. Those are always very much appreciated. So today I want to talk about something that I've really started to think about a lot recently over the last couple weeks. And something that I've talked to a lot of different trainers and coaches about. And I think it's a big disconnect that can help a lot of players when it comes to not just getting better, but seeing results in games, seeing results faster in games too. Allowing the work that you do to translate better to your actual games, to your actual competition. And that's the idea that it is so important for you to watch basketball, watch a lot of basketball, watch more basketball. I think watching basketball is something that we've kind of gone away from and it's because I think, you know, with, with social media, right, we watch basketball like everybody watches basketball, but a lot of times it's like these little 20 second clips of something that happened in an NBA game. And that's how like, that's like what 95% of people do now when it comes to watching basketball. They get all of their basketball through Twitter or Instagram and they're not actually watching though. So I think it's a, it's a little bit like, you know, you know, when you think about, okay, hard work versus smart work, right, you might be doing something, but does it actually matter? Right? You might, you might feel like you're getting stuff done, but is the work that you're doing actually applicable to you getting results or seeing success? And I think that's a lot of times what the case is with this. So I think that this is a huge missing piece though. And I'm going to talk about why exactly watching basketball is going to translate directly to you being a better player. But the first thing I want to talk about is a concept that you kind of have to have a basic understanding of to understand why, and that's mirror neurons. And essentially all mirror neurons are. Is a group of neurons that activate when we perform an action or when we watch somebody perform an action. So when you watch somebody else do something, your brain is still firing, right? And it's firing in a way that's very similar to how it would if you were the one who's actually performing that action, right? And it's this phenomenon that happens with our brains, and it's a big part of human development, right? When you're a baby, you can mimic the facial expressions of adults because you see it and you're able to mimic it. And that's just an example of mirror neurons working, obviously, all throughout childhood. That's how we learn, usually is by watching people do things. When you're at school, you watch the older kids do different things, then you do those things. You watch your older brother, older sister, mom, dad, do different things, and you do those things, right? It's how humans learn at our core. And when you watch somebody do something, think about how much easier it becomes for you to do it, right? So when you think about just an example. So if you're in a workout, right, and you're, you know, having a tough time doing something, but then you see somebody do it, your brain is able to make that connection. And again, just by you watching them, your brain is firing as if you were the one who is doing it. So it becomes easier for you to do it when you see that example. And basically this is referred to as observational motor learning. All that means that you're watching somebody perform an action and you're learning how to do it by watching. That's basically all that that means right there. And studies have shown that observational motor learning improves perception and then the actual ability for you to complete that motor function. So all that means is that when you. When you watch somebody and you learn that way, your ability to perceive situations, to actually go through and do that action, meaning if I watch somebody and let's say they're going. They're in some sort of. Let's say they're in a ball screen, right? And I see, okay, they chose to pull up right there, right? Well, my brain is not only going to see them perform that action, but it's also going to recognize, hey, why did they do that? Oh, okay. Well, the defender was there, and that's why they chose to pull up right there. Right. So that's a big part of being a great player, is it's not just the action part of it, right? It's not just, can I make the shot? But it's also, do I know when to take the shot, do I know why to take the shot? And you can learn a lot of that by observing other people in those situations, right? So that's why it's so important for us to watch people, for us to watch other players, because you get to see not only them complete in action and how they complete that action, but why they do it, the context behind it, and. And that helps you immensely. Helps you immensely. So that's kind of the basic thing we got to understand when it comes to why it's important to be watching basketball. How does that translate, though, to you and playing basketball? When you watch a lot of basketball, you're going to pick up on things, and a lot of it might be subconscious, right? You might not even consciously pick up on everything that you watch. But being a great player is about being a great problem solver. And the more solutions that you've seen and have access to, the more prepared you're going to be to solve problems when you're actually faced with them. Right? Common sense, right there. It's going to. It's going to increase your memory bank and the options that you can go to because you've seen more. So, you know, I've talked about it with a lot of different trainers, some on the podcast and some just, you know, generally around where once we stopped playing or started training, and now all of a sudden you're watching different things. Like, you know, I know for me, and again, a lot of the auditors that I know, like, we spend a lot of time watching, whether it's, you know, on YouTube or on Synergy or Second Spectrum, just watching different players play and, you know, trying to learn, okay, how do they do this? What do they do to make them so successful in these situations that you spend so much time trying to learn these things that you subconsciously picked them up. So I, I know now, like, okay, I'm not working out nearly as much as I was when I was playing, but I'm significantly better now because I have watched so much more and I see so many more opportunities now, and I see so many more solutions to problems that I never would have seen had I not taken time to actually study things. Right? And again, that that has nothing to do with anything like any sort of training or any sort of, hey, you know, I'm working out more now, I'm working out less now, but I'm watching so much more that, you know, it allows me to have more solutions to problems, which allows me to be a more successful player in general. So, you know, I think that it becomes easier to recognize opportunities on the court that a lot of people don't recognize simply because, you know, I've just watched a lot. I think another important concept for you to understand is that we all see the world differently. This is due to a term called affordances, right? And all that an affordance is, is basically an opportunity for you to act. So think of it like a seven footer has different affordances than somebody who's five eight, right? So Shaq had different affordances. He had different opportunities to act than, you know, Isaiah Thomas did, right? Because they just had different physical qualities, right? Shaq might get the ball in the post and he's going to have an opportunity to do something that if Isaiah Thomas is the ball in the post, he's not going to be able to do the same thing, right? That's all that an affordance is, is. Okay? This person has this quality or this skill, it allows them to do that. This person has this other quality or skill allows them to do that, right? So everybody is a little bit different in that regard right there. And this is true for literally every area in life. So think about an experienced web developer is going to see a piece of website code way differently than I'm going to see it. They're going to see opportunity in that. I'm going to see nothing, right? They're gonna see something and I'm gonna see nothing in that right there. But we're looking at the same exact thing. A pilot is gonna look at a navigation system and see something completely different than I would see, right? They're gonna see opportunity. I'm gonna see nothing, really. And it's the same environment, right? We're looking at the same exact thing, but we see completely different opportunities in that. And that's how basketball works too. An average high school point guard is not going to view the game the same as Chris Paul. They're not going to see the same opportunities that Chris Paul is going to see. You only see the game of basketball through your own capabilities, meaning that you don't see past your own limitations. So again, somebody who's a very, very good player is going to see more things, see more opportunities that a less experienced, right, less skilled player is just not going to see, right? It's not even that that player is going to see it, not be able to act on it. They're not even going to able to pick it up because their brain is not going to spend time, you know, or their brain is not going to waste time, waste energy noticing something that it can't do anything about. If it can't act on a situation, it's not going to think to even give you that input, right? So the question is, how can you expand your capabilities and give yourself more affordances to act on? You know, the first way is the obvious one. So improve your ability or your size or your athleticism, and that's going to improve your affordances. But I think the other way is to watch how certain players handle different situations and you're going to start to recognize more opportunities to act. So watch how Chris Paul handles a ball screen situation and watch it over and over again. So watch how he handles different coverages, watch how he handles different matchups that are thrown at him and you're going to start to see how he conducts himself in these situations. And you might pick up on things that you've never noticed, right? You might have been in a similar situation. You've never seen a solution that he saw because you know, that's something that again, was an affordance for him. Maybe it wasn't for you, but now that you've taken time to study and pick it up, maybe that is something now that you, you recognize that you see. So you can do that for any situation. Watch how Devin Booker creates scoring opportunities in the mid range. You might see things that you've never noticed before, solutions you've never picked up on before. And it's because maybe it wasn't something you were capable of, but now you've noticed it and now, boom, that's something that you can put into that solution bank. And now you've expanded your capacity to perform right there and now you might have another affordance right there. Watch out. Tyrese Halliburton creates opportunities for his teammates. There might be something you've completely missed that you'll watch. Now you can again add that to, you know, what you're capable of seeing and therefore acting upon. And when you really study these things, like you're going to start to notice opportunities when you play. Now again, that doesn't necessarily mean you're always going to be skilled enough to take advantage of them right away, but you're going to start to see them, right? You can work towards becoming skilled enough, but if you never see it, it doesn't matter how skilled you are. You're always going to be kind of stuck in a box with that. And this is how I am now, just really because of YouTube and because of all the stuff that I'm watching to try and, you know, figure out, okay, how do we improve this area? What does this player do really? Well, you know, I spend so much time studying players now that I just see so many more things now that I did when I was playing. And again, it allows me to see so many more solutions to problems and so many more opportunities to act on that I would have never been able to pick up on had I not watched. And so the question becomes, how can you do this, right? How can you actually tangibly start to, you know, watch and learn and add to, you know, your ability to act in different situations, pick up on more solutions and ultimately have more affordances that you can act on? You know, I think the, the first thing is just go to YouTube and watch highlights of players that you want to learn from, right? This can be anybody that you're interested in watching. And I would say, you know, game highlights are great and obviously like the NBA posts a lot of highlights of players and House of Highlights does that too. And again, I'm not saying going on Twitter and watching a 20 second clip of someone dunking, like, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about going to YouTube and watching, okay, Klay Thompson versus the Milwaukee Bucks, right? And you watch a five minute video, that's all just Klay Thompson or Damian Lillard versus the Lakers, right? And you're going to be able to watch just, you know, five minute clip of that game right there. And just when you do that, watch it through one time, just observing, right? Not trying to see anything specific, just watching it through and then watch it through a second time and now try to pick up on different things, right? So pick up on, okay, how did he just do that? How did he just create space right there? What did he do that allowed him to create that right there? If he made a pass and it was a nice pass, well, break it down. How did he do that? How did he manipulate that help defender so he could create for his teammate right there? How did he beat his primary defender to be able to get to that look right there, start to notice these things and I would say even write it down. So how does he utilize change of speed, change of height? How does he create shots for himself? I think that whatever you notice, it's important that you write down at first. And this is going to be Hard, by the way. Like, if you're doing this for the first time, the first couple times, it's going to be hard to really pick things up. And you're going to feel like you're kind of banging your head against the wall trying to notice things. But I want you to try and notice every single little detail you can and just write it down. Even if it seems irrelevant, it seems dumb, write it down anyway, right? And what you're going to notice is the more that you do this, first of all, the easier it's going to become. You're building a habit. You're going to start to see things more easily, but you're going to pick up on patterns. You're going to see the same things over and over again, and you're going to start to naturally see what's important when you start to do this. So again, right off the bat, it might not be important everything that you see, but you'll start to pick up on what is and what isn't as you do it more and more. And you know, again, as you start to do this, a switch is going to flip for you and you're going to start to notice some of these situations, some of these opportunities when you play. You're going to start to think to yourself like, hey, I might have missed out on doing that, right? And it's all because you, you just been watching things, right? You've just been, again, increasing your understanding of what solutions are out there. And you know, eventually, as you do this more and more, you're going to start to do things and take advantage of situations in games that you, you haven't practiced before, right? You're just going to start to be able to act and see things and find solutions that you've watched before, that you've studied before. Because again, we talk about those mirror neurons, right? They've been firing as you're watching those things you're watching and you're thinking about, okay, how does this apply to me? That's your brain at work right there, okay? So you got to put yourself in a position to be able to do that. And it almost will feel like sometimes that you have done it before even though you've just watched it, right? So there's the value of that. If you have access to, like, Synergy or Second Spectrum, really, really great tools as well. But all you need for this is YouTube. YouTube is just a desire to learn, and you're going to be able to take advantage of this fully. And also going with that, watching full games when you can, I think is really important. Obviously, we're in April right now, and the national championship just ended. So, you know, you're not watching college basketball, but NBA playoffs starting soon. So just watching games and seeing the context behind what's going on as well, I think is really, really important. Because now you not only have, like the, the actual skills, okay, what are they doing? Like, how do they do these different things, but you're. You can see in a game, okay, when did they do this? Why do they do this? Are they trying to take advantage of a matchup? Are they trying, like, what are they trying to do? What's the game plan right here? And you can start to, again, pick up on those things as well, which just again, increases that basketball iq. And you're going to start to see that as you do this more and more often, as you study this more, you're. First of all, your basketball Q is going to go up a lot, but you're also going to skyrocket the affordances that you now have, right? The opportunities that you see when you play. It's going to be night and day for you as you do this over time. So, again, this is why I think it's so important to watch the game, to watch basketball, to not just watch it, but to study it and to really dive in and try and learn as much as you can. There's so much out there for you if you're willing to take advantage of it. So, again, I would encourage you to do this if you want to separate yourself and you want to maximize the work that you're doing on the court and the time that you're putting in. Make sure off the court, you're watching and you're learning as much as possible. Okay? So again, I appreciate you guys for watching Apple podcasts. Spotify. Make sure you guys drop reviews. Hopefully if you guys are on Spotify, you got to watch today. I'm hoping that it worked out. We'll see, obviously YouTube, you guys have been watching. I appreciate you guys. Drop a comment like subscribe if you are new and let me know what you also want to see. Make sure you guys follow me on Instagram at Vision Driven Basketball. Throw me a DM if a question for me, whatever. Or leave it in the comments on YouTube. Whatever. I always appreciate input from you guys. Questions, comments, suggestions, whatever. I always appreciate it and I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.