How to Get Good at Basketball…

How to Get Good at Basketball…

So if I told you that there’s one way to get good at basketball I would be lying to you you got some cases where somebody doesn’t start playing until they’re 18 and ends up in the NBA you got other cases where somebody does everything right but they just don’t have the right

Parents the right genetics and they don’t reach that same level so is there luck involved absolutely are there things that you can’t control 100% but I grew up around a lot of really good players coming from the Washington DC area I’ve worked with a lot of good

Players I’ve been around a lot of good players as I’ve traveled the for basketball and I really enjoy asking them and diving into how they grew up right what makes them who they are and there are some patterns some things that are usually there in almost all of these

Cases that I want to talk to you guys about today again don’t put too much pressure on yourself to follow this perfectly but this is generally how I would say if I had to answer in you know 10 minutes or whatever it is how somebody can get good at basketball

Let’s dive in so number one play a lot of basketball it’s not rocket science so between Andre Ericson and Malcolm Gladwell who are two goats this 10,000 hours theory was popularized and there’s definitely some value behind it right if you do something for 10,000 freaking

Hours you’re going to get good at it but whether we use that theory or just look at it logically the theory was always that if you do something for this amount of time you’re going to develop expertise with that task right now somewhere along the line we decided that

Training hours equals playing hours or basketball hours right so if you train for 10,000 hours you then develop expertise in playing against live Defenders that’s not how works right training by yourself is a little bit and actually a lot different than playing real basketball it definitely helps

Don’t get me wrong and we’ll talk about how training is vital but usually players will need a ton of time actually playing basketball against other people against Defenders to get good at basketball plus one of the things about this theories is that it has to be deliberate you got to be critically

Thinking as you’re playing you got to be intentionally working on things you got to find good people to play with to provide you some challenge you got to do this a lot cuz again playing and training are twoo completely different thing when you’re playing you learn the

Game and kind of figure out how to read things you got to figure out how to make things happen on live defense it’s trying to stop you you got to develop a mindset to score on other people you got to learn to adapt to the defense in the

Crazy amount of situations that we can see in basketball all these are things that again we don’t see when we’re training by ourselves and realistically the players who are surrounded by good players and tend to play with them a lot especially growing up they get pretty

Damn good this doesn’t mean you have to be in the gym with all NBA players every day but if you can find good players to play with or just decent players at that and do that a lot chances are you’re going to get pretty good at basketball I

Was actually talking to two former NBA guys in the last couple weeks both of them who told kind of similar variations of the same story and that’s that some of the best players that they’ve ever played with and this includes guys like Harden Eric Gordon Chris Paul Etc rather

Than going and getting up shots after every practice which they would do sometimes they would just go play one-on-one and it’s not like they’re just doing this for fun like that was their workout they’d be like let’s go get our work in and they would go over

There and play one-on-one and this is a perfect example of how sometimes we see like live play as a supplement to the training that we do by ourselves but in reality that training that we do by ourselves should be a supplement to all that we’re playing which brings up Point

Number two training in a very calculated way so again think about live play as your bulk of development whether it’s 1 V one 2v2 3v3 playing full open run fives and then doing small-sided games or setting up these games games to work on specific things like I do all the

Time with players that I train and then the stuff that you do by yourself is just a supplement to help you continue to get better at these things cuz through play we try things out we get a feel for our game we’re able to visualize things better and feel these

Out more then we go back to the drawing board get in the lab by ourselves or with a few other people and deliberately work on these skills that we feel like we need to train now don’t get me wrong especially for skills like shooting and some other skills we need time we need

Reps and if you aren’t spending out hours a week working on your shot getting up really quality reps chances are you are leaving a lot of potential on the table but again this should just be a supplement to the play that we do again I know in some situations it won’t

Work like this you won’t be able to find a gym you won’t be able to find people to play with whatever it may be and I’m not saying this is absolutely necessary like this is the the only way that you’re going to get good but this is

Just a pattern that I’ve seen in most of the best players that I’ve worked with they just grew up playing a lot they continue to play a lot because of that they get good at actual basketball not just training but point being on the training side of things make sure you’re

Training smart make sure you’re working on things in a way that really challenges you and make sure you’re working on things that apply to your game based on what you see in that live play number three especially when you’re young but really for anybody just continue to try things out experiment

The players that I’ve worked with and talked to who have the best handles they always mention like yeah I just brought my ball with me everywhere I’ll just try things out I’ll play 1 V one and just you know experiment I remember kids growing up who ended up having great

Handles who would like we would walk to the metro stop we would be dribbling you get on somebody would have to tell them to stop dribbling on the train you get off the train stop Dribble To The Park then go play One V one and keep

Dribbling this is how it’s done right in my opinion at least drills of course can be great right like these stationary ball handling drills but especially as a young kid you just need reps right and you got to be fluid you got to try things out you got to be creative with

These things then you got to watch some of the best players some of your favorite players and just try to do what they do not necessarily only you know the flashiest things but just try to emulate good players experiment with this try it on live defense and just

Continue to challenge your limits in any way right if you ask any good finisher around the rim for example they’ll probably tell you they just went to the park and tried stuff out they did 360 layups they tried to spin the ball off the glass A bunch of different ways he

Grew up playing on a rim that was missing pieces on the backboard so picture going up to the rim this way you have no backboard to finish now that somebody’s on your arm so he learned how to spin it where it could hit the left

Left side go in on the right so that’s how he learned those weird angles to twist the ball off of cuz his backboard missing pieces missing that’s crazy I’m like dog that’s insane maybe they played hella 21 where they have five people trying to block their shot and I’m not

Saying don’t work on your fundamental so to speak I’m not saying don’t do drills but continue to keep that creative flare in your development no matter how old you are especially if you’re young or you’re watching this to train somebody who’s young yeah for sure keep that creative it going allow them to

Experiment and try new things also within experimentation is just playing other sports you’ll notice that a lot of the best players played other sports growing up and this allowed them to develop important General skills whether it’s reading the game I think a lot of kids growing up playing basketball they

Don’t think like that they have the ball then they survey whereas I think it gave me an advantage to already have seen thousands of angles and decisions and um players moving and and reading defenses in on the socer field footwork lateral movement whatever as well as diversify their movement patterns to prevent

Overuse injuries and just not burn out with basketball at a young age which is why I think it’s important for kids and even older players to just play and not just basketball now in addition to this you have to watch basketball you have to

Digest the game but you got to do it in a different way than what we typically see these days which is this open up my Instagram scroll oh there’s a highlight clip next highlight clip and yeah I’m done okay and again this is just the nature of the world these days super

Quick content and like the most exciting content and you scroll to the next one scroll to the next one I do it we all do it it’s okay but we got to make sure we’re watching basketball in the right way and I’m only 25 I don’t want to

Sound like an old head but I know for sure when I was in Middle School and High School we number one we watched more full games I don’t know what it is just more exciting or we had a longer attention span I don’t know but I know

For sure that we watch a lot more full games than most players young players I work with these days and number two if not we’d watch the longer highlight tape right I would either watch a 15minute compilation of Tony Parker or maybe I would watch the Suns Hornet game like

The full highlight compilation from the night before and because of that instead of just seeing the Lebron dunk from last night or John Morant going crazy on somebody you now see the hakz buckets off of cuts right the Marcus Smart nightly defense Joe Harris hitting a big three coming down the stretch getting

Open off ball you know these things that aren’t just Superstars doing Superstar things and for 99.99999% of hoopers in the world this is going to be a lot better than watching and emulating only the KDs the Lucas the Devin Bookers the John Mor those guys they’re generational talents

And it’s great to take from them but we got to take from the entire spectrum of players so watch more full games to one understand how real basketball Works number two study the role players too and number three understand that even the best players players they make hell

Of mistakes I was watching a Mavericks game last night and honestly I don’t watch much NBA anymore I dissect the film from it but I can’t really sit around for the games anymore I typically watch Euro league and I’m like yo this dude Luca is missing a lot of shots dude

Missed 14 shots and still shot 50% from the field like these Miss shots these turnovers even for the best players in the world are regular but when we only watch highlights we forget that and we put pressure on ourselves when we make a turnover when we miss a shot so watch

Full games and you’ll be able to put that in perspective and highlights are cool like there’s definitely a place to study and just binge highlights of different players but try to see this through a student lens try to take all of it in start to study it and see it

Through a Different Light than most people would hopefully I’ve been a good resource to be able to do this for years but there are a lot of ways that you can start to analyze the game yourself and make sure you’re watching it on a new

Level I even have an ebook to teach you how to watch film better it’s cheap it’s only 15 bucks I don’t like plugging myself but hopefully that can help you guys and then lastly make sure this isn’t just NBA right college basketball is good because even though the skill

Isn’t as high as professional it’s more realistic style of play and still pretty good players and then International Hoops like Euro league Euro Cup really any professional League especially at a high level is incredible if you’re interested in watching Euro league hit me up I’ll get you right now the next

Thing is working on the mental side of things right the psychological tools that you possess up here now this is difficult some people are just blessed with predisposition to be super confident and not overthink things other people aren’t right and that’s just how it is and this video would be an hour

Long if I talked about all this so make sure to check out this video here but please please please understand the importance of working on the psychological side of things I promise you guys it’s not just cliche it’s not just BS this will change your game in

Career and then lastly get more athletic again sometimes we overthink this a lot of this just comes down to unfortunately genetics playing other sports growing up just jumping and running around a lot as a kid like again a lot of the most bouncy players I’ve talked to I’m like

Yo what did you do when you were younger like did you lift weights I doubt it but maybe like how’d you get athletic number one they chose the right parents number two a lot of them will say like yeah I just jumped up and tried to touch things

A lot and it’s just how it is right the more that you jump the more athletic you’re going to get the more that you sprint the more athletic that you’re going to get so continue to do athletic things obviously even if you are somebody who’s blessed with Incredible

Athleticism make sure to continue to get strong to follow a consistent plan and don’t overthink the perfect way to do this again something I post a lot of content about even have a full program for but make sure you’re getting strong but also not prioritizing this over the

Game unless it’s a very special case so yes this is a very long- winded video in a lot of ways but I want you guys to realize that although all of these are essential in some way or another none of them are inherently more important than another one maybe for somebody who grew

Up just hooping they never did any drills the results that they get from being in the gym by themselves or with a trainer and just working on their game game it’s going to be incredible versus somebody who’s done drills their whole life they probably need to go play more

And just get experience in a live game so everyone’s going to have different priorities everyone’s answer to improving the most and reaching their potential is going to be a little bit different but consider which ones you’ve missed out on the most fill in these gaps and I promise you guys you’re going

To get pretty freaking good at basketball don’t overthink it just get to it guys I’m excited to see how you guys continue to progress and improve hopefully again I’ve been able to help you guys over the years and we’re only getting started

This is definitely the most broad video I’ve ever made, but sometimes we have to zoom OUT and look at the big picture 👀

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