Your Guide To Basketball Training When It's Cold Outside (Podcast Episode 32)

Foreign welcome to the Vision Dream Basket podcast. Thank you guys for tuning in this week. Really appreciate all you guys who are on Apple podcast, Spotify, listening in, of course, all you guys who are on YouTube. Drop a comment, let me know. This episode is going to be all about playing basketball in the cold, playing boss in the winter. So drop a comment, let me know where you're from. Okay, just so we. I kind of get a gauge of who's actually dealing with the cold right now. Who lives in California, Florida, you know, somewhere in the South, Texas, where it's, you know, they don't really have to worry about winter too much. Let me know where you're at. Maybe you're, you're in Canada and you got to deal with 2, 2ft of snow every day. Like, let me know, like I said, today's episode all about how to deal with playing in the winter, training in the winter, because obviously that presents a whole new set of challenges compared to the rest of the rest of the year when it comes to training. And especially now for those of you who can't get into a gym, it makes things a lot more difficult. So we're going to talk about what you can do to overcome that. Some areas you can look to explore potentially, and ultimately how we can make the most out of what we have. That's really what it's all about. So obviously, as the weather gets colder and the days get shorter, it becomes more difficult to play basketball and it becomes more of a challenge to go get your work in. Today we're going to talk about how you can overcome the cold, overcome the winter, to still be able to get your work in. Now some of you guys are in different spots. You know, maybe some of you guys have a gym that you have access to, and potentially this year, maybe Covid is actually messing that up. So maybe you don't have a gym now because of that. And maybe you always play outside throughout the whole year. And now, of course, it's getting colder out, so that becomes more and more difficult. So again, I'm going to kind of cater this to both of that, to both of those groups. And if you were kind of outside of those groups, I'm sure you're going to find some similarities, some different aspects of this is going to help you as well. So we'll go over a whole bunch of stuff related to that. And really, whatever the reason is, there's going to be a way for you to overcome that. Okay? There's going to be a way for you to still be able to get your work in. And it doesn't matter what else is going on outside of you. It doesn't matter what the weather's like, doesn't matter where you are, doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what's happening. There's going to be a way for you to be able to get your work in, okay? You may have to adjust some things, but at the end of the day, like I said, we're going to be making the most of what we have, which is, at the end of the day, the best you can do, okay? And again, you control your effort and you control your energy, okay? Those are the two things you control. You don't really control anything else. You don't control if it's going to snow today. You don't control if it's going to snow tomorrow. You don't control if it's going to be 5 degrees or if it's going to be 50 degrees. You control your effort and your energy area. Yeah. Your effort and your energy. So today we're going to talk about how we can use that to our advantage. How can we focus on controlling the controllables, okay. And making the most out of what we have? So for some context, just so you guys know, I live in Pennsylvania, so I experienced the northeast weather. I've grown up here. And we get all four seasons, right? We don't live in. This isn't Florida. We don't have, you know, we don't have summer, spring all year, right? We have, we have spring, we have summer, we have fall. And of course we, we get winters, okay? We get plenty of snow. It gets plenty cold, plenty of ice. All right? So for the more. The majority of you in the United States, you probably don't have worse weather than, than I've experienced, right? Some of you guys who might live right on the, the Great Lakes, you live in Buffalo, you might get more snow. You know, you live up in Maine, maybe you get colder, colder days. There are certainly places that get really, really cold. You live in Minnesota, maybe it's worse, but it's not that much worse, right? We get, we get. Depending on the year, we get bad winters sometimes, okay? So. And, but, but every year we're gonna get that winter weather, which is where we're heading right now. So just for a little bit of context, when I was growing up, I usually had access to the local YMCA in the, in the winter. Now, obviously, as winter comes, more people are trying to get into a gym, right? Because people can't play outside anymore. People Are, are, aren't playing different sports anymore. People aren't playing soccer, football really, they're playing basketball now. So gym space is harder to come by in general. But what I used to always do is during the winter I'd go to the gym at 5:30 in the morning with my dad and we'd go shoot then. And usually most days I'd have a completely empty gym and we could, we could be in there for 45 minutes, an hour, and then get out. And it was, that was, that was how we got, how I got my stuff done. And obviously if I went later in the day, it would usually be pretty packed with people. So I had to be able to do that and get my work done early so that I was able to be, you know, uninterrupted or at least have the least amount of interruptions possible. So for those of you guys who have that opportunity, you say, oh man, I always go to the gym, but it's always, always on a ton of people right there. Try and go early, right? Try and go as soon as it opens during the day. Because most people aren't. They're just there to play basketball, right? They're not there because they really care all that much. So they're going to go when it's more comfortable, which is more comfortable to go in the evening, right? More comfortable, go in the late morning, early afternoon. It's more comfortable to go later in the day. But that means that if you're willing to get up early and go, you might have more, more space to yourself. Okay, again, some of you guys, that may or may not be an option, but for me, that was the option. But of course there are still some days where I had to work out outside in the winter, right? Thanksgiving, Christmas, Christmas Eve, New Year's, definitely other days around then and couldn't always get into the gym. So there are days where I had to be able to work out just right outside my house in the hoop in our, in our cul de sac. So there I had to be able to kind of manage both of those things. So that being said, right, it really starts off for me with like, how cold are we talking here? Okay. Because there's gonna be different levels of this. Obviously it's, you know, 40 degrees out, so, you know, that might not be as bad as a day where it's, you know, negative five. Okay. So we get plenty of days during the winter here where you're gonna have weather that's in the 40s, maybe even the low 50s on a real Nice day. January, February, right. Not every day. Not, not every January either. Some, sometimes we might have. January's where it's going to be in the, in the teens and the twenties, every single day. And it's going to snow a lot, right? But some years we'll have nice days. You know, for example, today is November 20th in Pennsylvania, central Pennsylvania. It's 60 degrees, not normal. But again, for a lot of you guys in the United States who live in the Northeast or you live in. And I don't know what it's like in the Northwest, honestly right now, even in the Midwest, you're probably having some nicer days. Okay? So take advantage of that while you can. It's not normal. But again, you get the point of what I'm trying to say. Even on days where it's a bit colder, right? You know, 25, 30 degrees with no snow, that's when you know you can, you can bundle up and get outside. That's where sweatpants, a jacket and you know, you're able to go outside and work for 30, 40, 50 minutes. Now, again, there's, you could obviously take some bracelets. Again, there's going to be more challenges that come with playing in the cold, right? You might have to go inside and take a five minute break halfway through your workout or maybe two or three times during your workout, depending how cold it is. That's completely acceptable. Okay. You might not do that during an 85 degree day in the summer, or maybe you will because it's so hot like it. But I'm just saying you can take, you can take those breaks, get yourself warmed up and then go out and get going again. But there, there's definitely, you can definitely layer up and go out. The other thing I'll say is a nice thing to use is cut off gloves, right? So fingerless cutoff gloves, especially if you can get some that have like a little bit of grip on like the palm and that way you can play in those. So your fingers still have the ability to kind of have some control in the ball, but you still can keep the majority of your hands warm, right? Because obviously when you're outside, usually the first part of your body that really starts to feel the cold is your hands, right? So you want to have something on your hands so you can go out and finish your workout. So I'd highly recommend you guys grab a pair of fingerless gloves. That way the majority of your hand is still covered. I'll post a picture of what I'm talking about just so you guys can see, see that. And you know, that might be there, there, there's something for your Christmas list right there. So for those of you guys who need some stuff, there's, that's something that I would recommend. And you can probably get a pair for like a dollar at Walmart. Like, I'm sure they're not that hard to come across, but that's. So that's obviously outside. So the, the really, the first thing is like, it is harder to play outside, of course, right? No one wants to play wearing a coat or wearing a jacket or wearing a sweatshirt. Like, no one wants to do that. But you may be able to. And honestly, once you get outside and start going a little bit, it becomes easier to do that. Like, you got, you start to get warmed up, right? You don't, you don't feel the cold as much and you can really just get, get, you know, get out and get your workout done. It's really, it's really not as hard once you actually get going. Obviously getting going can be difficult, but get yourself bundled up, get those, get those gloves on you and get outside. You can get your workout in, okay? And that's really, that's, that's where it starts off. So that's option one is just bundle up and go and do it. And it might not be fun, right? And you might even have it be a little bit shorter than normal, especially if it's like pretty cold out, right? You might have it be a little bit shorter, but you're still able to go and get some like, real work in, which is very, very good. Like, that's all. Again, it's about making the most of what you can. Okay? You might not be able to go out for two hours and work out. You might not be able to. You might not be able to go for 90 minutes and work out. That might just not be possible. Maybe you can. My point being, do the most that you can with what you have. Okay? That's really what it comes down to. So the next one, going back to what I was talking about earlier is talking about gym space, right? So I got a question. I think it was on my live stream yesterday, which again, shout out to everybody who's on my 10,000 subscribers live workout stream yesterday on YouTube. Well, actually at this point, you guys seen this on a Sunday, so this would have been on Thursday. So shout out to all you guys who are on that and also shout out to all you guys who have subscribed hit 10,000 subscribers this week. So really appreciate all of you guys who are, who are been sticking with me. It's crazy. I was at like 5,000 subscribers like two months ago. So like we're growing, growing pretty fast. So again, shout out to all you guys, but somebody asked me on the live stream, like, how do you find gym space? And it depends on like, I can't answer that for you, right? Like, you, I don't know where you live, I don't know what options you have, but you have to be proactive in kind of searching that out. So some questions you can ask yourself. You know, there's. Do you have a YMCA near you? Right? Do you have a 24 Hour Fitness near you? Okay, and if you do, what is the, like, are you able to get a membership there? Usually those are, those aren't that expensive. So again, maybe you're looking for a Christmas gift, say hey mom and dad, can I have a membership to the YMCA for like, maybe that's what you asked for. Okay, so I'm just, that's an, that's an option for you. Also a lot of times schools will, you might be able to get into your school gym a little bit depending on what's going on. You know, that's, again, that's, that, that also could be. Can your coach let you in? Right? Because hey coach, can I, can I get some work in on our off day or can I get an early. Coach, can I stay late? Like there's some options for you. So that's a big thing I think is trying to get that extra work in like before or after practice because you're already in the gym, probably gonna be the best situation. You might, you may have, you don't have access to a gym outside of that. So being able to get some work in before practice, after practice. If your coach is willing to let you in on days that you don't have practice, or maybe if you have an evening practice, he's willing to let you in. Maybe if you say you have a Saturday practice at 4 o' clock or he's willing to let you in at 10 o' clock in the morning to get some shots up, maybe okay, that's an option you can explore that can be helpful for you. But like I said before, if you're, if you, if you, if you are able to go to YMCA or any sort of chain kind of gym in your area, again, whatever that might be for you, again, it can be as simple as just getting there really early in the morning, getting there at 5:36am when there's me less people in There and you can go get your work done. Right. Probably before school starts, you can get all your stuff done right then. And it's going to be more difficult. Yes. But again, it's really about finding those areas where you can separate yourself and be able to get stuff done, making the most out of what you have. So. Because obviously there's gonna be some days where it's negative 5 degrees outside or there's 6, 8, 10, 12 inches of snow on the ground, and playing outside isn't possible. So it can be good to be able to have that option. But of course, like I said, if you don't have that, that's fine, but continue to look for that, right? Continue to see if that's an option for you. Talk to your coaches, people that, you know, try and get yourself into a gym. That's really a big thing right there. You know, like I said, looking at your school, if you, you know, at a church, maybe, right? If you go to your church, maybe they have an area in there that has a little bit of space and maybe they have a hoop there, right? I know there's been a couple churches I've gone to where, like, they'll have basketball hoops in there. And, like, you know, you might play on, like, some. Some. You might not play on, like, hardwood, right? But maybe there's a. A room that has tile that. That you can play in, or there's a room that's like, kind of harder carpet, that has high ceilings. You can play. Like, there's options potentially for you, but it's about finding the connections you have and then seeing what's. What's available for you. So let's say, like, that. Let's. Let's forget about that, though. It can be even simpler in terms of just using the space that you have. So I told everyone who's in the live workout today, I'm like, listen, all you need for this workout is a little bit of space and a basketball. So, like, if you have a garage or a basement, then you're cool. That's all we need right now. And we were doing a drill that had us kind of moving a little bit, moving in a straight line. I was like, listen, some of you guys might have 30ft of space. Some of you guys might have 10ft of space, okay? But we can all make the most out of that. So we were doing that drill, and I told him, listen, you're going to go for as far as you can and then turn around, go back to the start and go again, okay? You Might only go for 5ft or you might go over 30. Right? Depends on where you are. I was in a gym, but I know there's plenty of guys who weren't. So we all were able to get our work in regardless of where we're at. And it's really about making the most of what you have. So now the question is, do you have a basement or garage you can use? And if so, how much space do you have in that basement or in that garage? How you know, for the most part, the ceilings aren't going to be high enough for you to be able to really shoot down there. Maybe it is for you. Maybe you're lucky and you have that. But even if you don't, like, you're able to get so much done still, you're gonna get so much done still. Even if you have a hoop, like, not having a hoop available to you does not eliminate your intellect. A lot of players saying, like, oh, I don't have a hoop, so I can't do any of my workouts. Like, that's not true. That's not true. You might not be able to do a shooting workout, a workout that's just based on shooting. Probably can't do that without a hoop. That wouldn't really make much sense. Right. But for, like, most other workouts, you can still do it, and you might just have to take away the actual shooting part of it. So, for example, like, a player might say, oh, I don't have a gym, so I can't do any of my drills today. I don't have a hoop, so I can't really work out. And it does make it difficult to work on your actual shot, obviously. Right. But there's still something you can, that you can still do. So, for example, if you have a drill, let's say you have a drill that you've, you know, like, I'll say take one of my primitive score system drills. So we have like our three cone triangle drill, the top of the key where we're going to go with a. Between the legs at the top. And then we're going some sort of move, usually a punch, or we might go with another between. Into a punch or whatever it's going to be, right? So we go to that first cone, go between the legs, next cone between the legs into a step back right there. Okay. Obviously that drill calls for you to shoot the basketball at a hoop. Okay. But if you don't have a hoop, you can still do that entire drill. Just instead of shooting the ball. It's Just a shot fake. Right. I can still go between the legs and the first cone. So between the second leg, one dribble, step back, shot fake. Okay. I still get all the benefits of actually of the actual game movement. Right. I'm working on. We could obviously just stand still and just do step backs. Okay, we could do that or we can put this into a moving situation so where you have to be able to go between your legs and then between legs again and then take a dribble downhill and then go into your step back and then we get to the shot. There's a whole massive part of that drill that happens before you even shoot the basketball. Okay. So even if you can't do that last part, you solve that entire first part of the drill you can do. And that goes for any sort of drill like that. Okay, we have another drill in there where it's a three cone float drill, right. So we're going to start at one cone and we're going to go into a double combo and we're going to use that to float to the next cone. And we're going to do that at all three cones. And at that last cone, we're going to co offer either one drill pull up or a step back. I forgot what the. I think it's either one of those two things. And with that, obviously again calls for a shot at the end. But you can do that entire drill without a shot. You can still work on the explosive double combos into the float. You can do the all three cones and then you can work on taking that hard one dribble into your. Into your pickup, right into your one, two step for your shot. Okay. It's just a pump fake though. So yeah, you might not be able to get the actual shot in, but you can do everything else. You can do 85% of the drill. So keep that in mind with all this stuff. Okay. There, there. Obviously, yes, it's ideal to have a who, but if you don't have one, there's still a lot of stuff you can do. And that's what I tell my guys. Like for there. There were guys who were like, hey, coach, like, you know, it's. It's like pouring us like actually, I remember back in, I want to say like May or June, there was a. There was a hurricane. I think it was. There's been a lot of hurricanes. I think actually I saw that this is like the. One of the worst hurricane season. I think it's the second worst hurricane season ever in recorded history. So. Been a Lot of hurricanes this year. And one of my guys sent me a dm. He was like, hey, coach, like, we're getting, like, we're getting part of that hurricane. So it's like flooding. Like, we can't really. I can't go outside and, and play. And I was like, listen, man, you can still, like, you can still go through a lot of your workout today or the next day, whatever, however long you have to wait. You can still go through a lot of your workout without a hoop, right? There's still a lot of ball handling with. Involved with the permanent choices. There's a lot of, like I said, drills that are going to involve a whole bunch of different stuff before the shot. So you might have to skip the actual just shooting drills, but you can still do everything else. So that was what I told. That's why I tell all my guys who have that. And that's, you know, for, for those guys, that's, that's what again, making the most out of what you have. That's what it's all about. And then obviously my guys who are in elite, my elite ball handling program, it's the same thing. I tell them the same exact thing. Except with that program, 90, probably 95, 97% of it doesn't require hoop. And the small portions that do, you don't even need the hoop, right? You can literally do what I just told you and just do the actual drill part. You're still getting the ball handling benefits. So for those guys, it's kind of a moot point. But that's really, that there's no excuse for anything. There's a way to overcome whatever it is that, that you're going through with that. So here's, here's kind of my closing angle with that. You know, ultimately there's always an excuse that you could have for why you can't do something. And a lot of times those excuses are valid. I'm not here to tell you that, like, it's easy or anything like that. Like, it's, it's not. I understand that it can be difficult, but you have to remember that, that ultimately there's always something you can do. Okay? There is always something that you are able to do. And a lot of people, if things aren't perfect, we'll just do nothing. A lot of people, you. You'd be surprised. Like, you might think that. And here's the other thing. Like, a lot of players don't really recognize how hard that they actually work because a lot of people only do things when it's perfect, right? So even if you go out and you go through a workout and it's, it's just terrible. It sucks. Like, you're like, man, I feel like I'm just playing terrible today and I'm doing all this stuff and I can't. Like, I'm in my basement and I can't actually do the shooting part of it. Like, I feel like I'm just, like, I'm frustrated because I want to be out at the gym, I want to be at a court, I want to be able to do my whole thing. And it's like, that's obviously not a fun situation to be in. But when you do that, there's 10 other players who just said, oh, I can't go to a court today. Guess I'm not working out. Trust me, you are in the, the, the minority of people if you're willing to still go out and work even when it's not ideal, okay? So be proud of yourself for even do wanted to do that because a lot of players won't. And that not only is that going to help you physically, skill wise, get, get better when other players aren't, but mentally it's going to help you to develop a mentality like, no matter what happens to me, there's something I can do to overcome this, right? There's something that I can do to still get better even if things are not perfect. Okay? There don't fall into the trap of thinking that things have to be perfect or you can't do it, right? Things have to be exactly how you want them before you can act. That's not how life works. And the people who are able to take action despite circumstances being unfair or being imperfect, those are the ones who are going to succeed. And that goes for everything. You always have the power to, to do something. And you have to understand that in order to get ahead at times, you're going to have to be willing to be uncomfortable, okay, Maybe even for extended amounts of time, maybe even for longer than you'd like to. And that's another thing. A lot of people, when things are not perfect, they're not going to do it. And when things are uncomfortable, they definitely won't do it. So if you're able to overcome both of those things, you're going to be in the top 5% of players because the 95% is not doing things when it's not perfect. Trust me, Trust me. I know, I know that there are a lot of players who put on a front like they work really, really Hard. But as soon as one thing goes wrong, Nope, the hard work goes out the window. It goes out the window for a lot of players, okay? So if you're able to overcome those two things, things not being perfect for you, you're able to accept and be willing to go through uncomfortable situations, then you're going to be, you're going to, you're going to, you're going to develop a really good mindset that's going to help you to be successful. So if you want to be, if you want to separate yourself from other people, from other players, be willing to be uncomfortable. Be willing to do what's uncomfortable at the moment, okay? Be willing to do that for extended amounts of time. Now, I'm not telling you to go outside where, you know wearing a short sleeve shirt and shorts when it's negative 20 degrees. I'm not telling you to do that, okay? That's not what I mean by uncomfortable. What I mean is that you go outside when it's 25 degrees out, wearing your sweatshirt and your coat and your fingerless gloves, and you go through your workout, right? Even though a lot of people are just hanging out inside because they can't get in the gym today, okay? You go through, and you go through a 30 minute workout right there, right? I'm saying that, you know, you wake up one day and there's 10 inches of snow on the ground. So you go into your basement and you do 25 minutes of ball handling, okay? A lot of players see that and say, hey, snow day, guess I'm off. That's what I mean by being uncomfortable. Uncomfortable is going into the basement where it's cold, where it's dark, where, you know, there's not a lot of space and you still get your work in, right? That's being, that's, that's willing to what? Your willingness to be uncomfortable, okay? That's what I'm talking about right here. That's the important thing that you're going to develop by, by seeing that. I think the other thing that you can do is, and this is a really, really interesting point as well, shift the way you view having to work outside, right? Shift the way that you view this, right? Take it from being, oh man, I don't have access to a gym, it's cold outside. Shift that to being like, listen, I get to go outside and develop my mental toughness right now. I get to go out and I get to learn how to work hard. I get to work how to thrive being uncomfortable because there's some kid who lives. And I'm not trying to dog anybody who lives in a nice place, but like, there's some kid in Miami right now who doesn't have to deal with this cold weather, right? Things are always perfect. When he's working out, he never has to deal with it. But me, I live in Ohio, I live in Massachusetts, I live in Maine, I live in Washington, I live in Oregon, I live in, you know, Illinois, like, and it's cold out. And now I have to overcome that to be able to get my work done. Okay? Now when I face challenges in a game, in, in a season, whatever it might be, I'm used to finding ways to overcome things, right? Whereas a player who doesn't have to ever do that, maybe they struggle with that, maybe they have to learn that later on in life. So maybe when you guys both get to the same level and he gets hit with something that you get hit with, you, it bounces right off you, you keep on going, but it, it distracts him, it deters him from being his best because he's never had to deal with constant, constant, you know, constant struggle, right? Constant. Constantly things not being perfect, okay? So understand that that's developing a certain level of mental toughness in you. That's a really, really good thing, okay? So take it from being, oh man, I can't believe this happening to me, to, oh man, like, I can use this to make myself a tougher, better player so that when situations come up in my life, in my career, or where things go wrong, things aren't perfect, I'm uncomfortable, I'm used to it, I can overcome it, I can deal with it. I'm going to be successful in the long run because of that, okay? That's a big key to be able to take from that. So embrace the winter, right? Embrace the cold. Embrace having to do things that might not be comfortable, might not be fun, might not be great because you're going to come out on the other side of things being, first of all appreciative of the opportunities that you do have and also understand that you can really overcome whatever it is, whatever that happens to you can overcome it and you're going to be all right, okay? So there's a whole mindset shift right there that's going to help you out in the long run. And just additionally, a couple other things. When it's in the winter, that's a great time for working on your strength. So again, I have an at home strength program on my YouTube channel, so you can check that out just Go up to the search bar, type in vision of basketball strength. It will come right up for you. You can do that if you need something. Also, your athleticism is something you can work on at home as well. Again, I always preach this, but PGA performance is in my opinion the best in the business at this sort of stuff at the athleticism, vertical jump, quit, like all that sort of stuff. Right. I think he's the best side. He's a vert code bodywood program, which is what I'm currently doing actually. And it's really, really well made. You can do the whole thing at home. So I'm not getting paid for this yet. Hopefully I'll get paid eventually for it, but I'm just, I think it's a really, really good program. So if you guys are looking for something to do at home that you guys are able to work on your athleticism and your strength, go check it out. Okay. Be willing to invest in that because it's going to return to you tenfold what you put into it. Okay? So again, highly recommend that you guys check that out if that's something you're interested in. But those are things you can also do at home as well. Like there's, there's things for you that you can focus on while you're at home when things again aren't ideal. So again, hopefully that helped you guys out. Any questions for me, again, drop them in the comments. Again, thank you guys. For 10,000 subscribers, gonna keep on growing. Make sure you guys, if you have not yet turn on my post notifications on YouTube so you guys see my videos. You know when I went live for that, that ball handling workout, I didn't post about it until like the morning of, right? So we went at like 8 o'. Clock. I didn't post about till like 10:30 that morning. So usually I try and post the night before, but I just, I woke up that day, I was like, you know what, I'll do this workout today. So that was what I decided to do. So again, if, if you. To make sure you guys don't miss me posting about it, my community post about that, go ahead and turn on my notifications so you always will see my stuff and you guys aren't caught off guard. Of course, anytime a video drops, podcast drops, you guys are the first ones to know it. But again, thank you guys for listening for watching Apple podcasts. Go ahead and leave a review for me. Really would appreciate that. YouTube drop a like subscribe notifications. You guys know the deal already. I'll talk to you soon. Peace sat.