Latest / The Strength In Numbers Podcast / EP 8: Justin Lovvorn | Crafting a Culture of Long-Term Skill Development
Transcript
- 0:00At some point you are going to fail and you are going to be
- 0:03crushed by the sport that you love.
- 0:06So are you as a person going to be crushed by that reality or
- 0:11are you able to operate with a joy and reality?
- 0:14The ability to take a lot of complexity and boil it down to
- 0:18simplicity is the most important thing you can do as a coach.
- 0:21The goal is what are the most lowest hanging fruits that are
- 0:24applicable across every level and then how do we spend as much
- 0:28time as possible on those? Let's just eliminate everything
- 0:30that doesn't apply directly to the mission that we have in
- 0:33front of us and the things that we're trying to have clarity on.
- 0:36Layering yourself with the right information and then the right
- 0:38environments, that's going to dictate so much more than just
- 0:41like grinding it out. If you're just presenting
- 0:44information and concepts and like, hey, this works, do this
- 0:47drill with your players, but you're not like actually problem
- 0:51solving individuals. It's it's not as impactful.
- 1:00Welcome to the Strength in Numbers podcast.
- 1:02I'm your host John Bloom and today we have Justin Livorne
- 1:05joining us. Justin is the owner of Shooters
- 1:07HQA basketball shooting and skills program in Dallas, TX,
- 1:11and he was also just hired as the head boys basketball coach
- 1:14at Fort Worth Southwest Christian School.
- 1:16This is an incredible conversation on all things
- 1:18development, crafting great learning environments and
- 1:21cultures, cutting the fluff, and creating the best long term
- 1:24developmental paths. Enjoy the episode, Justin.
- 1:27Man, I've really been looking forward to this conversation and
- 1:30I'm pumped you're here. Yes, sorry.
- 1:32Thank you for having me. Well, you know, for for people
- 1:34that don't know, you can just give a little background of just
- 1:36just who you are. Yeah, to give a little intro on
- 1:38myself, I played college basketball at a few places.
- 1:41I finished at Oral Roberts as a walk on there and was able to
- 1:45really learn a lot. And from there I really
- 1:47developed a passion for teaching players how to shoot.
- 1:50And part of that went back to my journey and, and how I was able
- 1:53to develop as a shooter and some of the up and down years that I
- 1:56had. But from there, working
- 1:58individually with players, we started building out kind of the
- 2:01Academy setting of that. So working with multiple players
- 2:04that are trying to work on their shot and improve as a scorer and
- 2:07a decision maker, that's really been the bread and butter that
- 2:10I've worked on with a lot of players.
- 2:12From there, we've added teams. So basically it's it's a full
- 2:15blown Academy at this point where we're playing in the
- 2:17spring, in the summer, and we're really focused more on the
- 2:20individual and the group training in the fall and the
- 2:22winter. So that shooter's HQ, that's my
- 2:25basketball Academy, me, and I'm now a head coach at Fort Worth,
- 2:28Southwest Christian. So kind of have both of those
- 2:31things on my plate and I'm really excited to keep building
- 2:33on both of those. Yeah, now that's awesome.
- 2:35And as you talk about taking on that head coaching role rights,
- 2:38your first like high school head coaching job, correct?
- 2:41Yes, Sir. Yeah.
- 2:41So stepping into that, that new role, like what are your, your
- 2:45biggest rocks, your like biggest objectives coming in, in the
- 2:47initial phase? And, and maybe like, what does
- 2:49your vision look like for this first year versus, you know,
- 2:52what you want to build into, you know, two, 3-4 years down the
- 2:54line? Yeah, I think, you know, for me
- 2:57it just comes back to personally staying true to myself.
- 3:00I think part of what I'm bringing in is what I've been
- 3:03able to do well the past, you know, 3-4, five years and
- 3:08developing players and helping offensive improve and and
- 3:11shooting improve. And I want to stick to my guns
- 3:14on that. So in terms of coming in and
- 3:16building a program, a lot of it goes back to the principles that
- 3:19I really believe in. What are the ways that we're in,
- 3:21what are the ways that we're practicing?
- 3:23What are the methodologies and the philosophies that I down to
- 3:26work personally? And that's one thing within
- 3:28basketball that I think it's tripped up sometimes.
- 3:31Everybody thinks they have the golden answer and it's the only
- 3:34way that things should be. And in reality, there's a lot of
- 3:37ways to win playing basketball and there's a lot a lot of ways
- 3:39to do things. So I don't necessarily want to
- 3:42come in saying, hey, I know everything, right?
- 3:44Especially as a younger coach, I think it's really important to
- 3:46understand where you're at and also how much you have to learn.
- 3:49So I'm a really big fan just in general of being a lifelong
- 3:53learner, especially in the basketball world.
- 3:54I think the most dangerous thing you can do as a coach is think
- 3:57you have the answers and not be willing to adapt.
- 3:59I think adaptability is huge as a player, as a coach, as a
- 4:03trainer, and being able to be willing to say, OK, there is a
- 4:05better way and constantly doing that.
- 4:07But going back to the philosophy side of it, like I'm a huge fan
- 4:10of playing fast. And over the past few years,
- 4:13I've just been able to lean on the analytics and Start learning
- 4:15what does work in high school basketball, what doesn't work?
- 4:18Why don't we double down, trouble down on the things that
- 4:21clearly result in more wins and better offense and better
- 4:24defense and just basically for forget about everything else,
- 4:27even even stylistically in terms of what are you working on in
- 4:30practice? Cut all the fluff that that's a
- 4:32big concept that I believe in. Let's just eliminate everything
- 4:35that doesn't apply directly to the mission that we have in
- 4:37front of us and the things that we're trying to have clarity on
- 4:40so that that kind of boils everything down into that.
- 4:43Yeah, that's great. And as you talk about being a
- 4:46lifelong learner and, and, and you know, you've worked with
- 4:49obviously tons of high school athletes, you've worked as
- 4:51assistants at high school programs.
- 4:52But being in this head coaching role, being the one making the
- 4:55decisions, what do you think the biggest things you're going to
- 4:57have to learn from actually be in that position are?
- 5:00Yeah. You know, in terms of running a
- 5:02program from the the AAU, the club side of it, I think the
- 5:06most important thing is understanding each person as an
- 5:08individual. And that's something that I'm
- 5:10looking forward to improving on and something that I know I need
- 5:14to continue to get better AT. And it's it's not thinking, hey,
- 5:18this has to be perfect across the board.
- 5:19You have to meet this standard. Realistically, I think a lot of
- 5:22the times it comes down to, you know, what are your parents
- 5:25like, what's your background? What do you feel like you're
- 5:28good at? What do you feel like you're bad
- 5:29at? How do you need to be coached?
- 5:31How do you not need to be coached and being able to handle
- 5:35that on a case by case basis instead of just throwing a
- 5:37blanket over everything. So for me, I trying to carry
- 5:40that over in terms of not how do we keep everybody happy all the
- 5:44time, but how do we meet everybody where they're at and
- 5:46try to move forward from there as we build a program.
- 5:49And, you know, as he talked about the AAU and your business,
- 5:52they're like, I feel like that some of the skills of like
- 5:54actually selling to parent, like you're selling a service to
- 5:57parents helps you with now, OK, you know, sometimes coaches
- 6:01complain like of dealing with parents with, you know, playing
- 6:03time or all these things like you kind of have had to dealt
- 6:06with that in a different in a different way.
- 6:07But now I I feel like that skill of transfers overwhelmed to the
- 6:10setting you're going to be in now.
- 6:11For sure. Yeah.
- 6:12And you know, I think it's always interesting to hear like,
- 6:14well, you know, kids are different now.
- 6:16Back in my day, we never got away with this.
- 6:17We never did this. I think there's like this
- 6:19magical, like the whatever the opposite of the Peter Pan
- 6:24concept, it like all of a sudden we get out of being a player and
- 6:28we think that we always dove on loose balls or that we always
- 6:31touched every line. And realistically that wasn't
- 6:34the case. And you know, I feel like
- 6:36there's just as many great kids now as there were before.
- 6:39I'm sure there's just as many bad kids as there were before.
- 6:41And I think if if you're pointing fingers at your
- 6:44culture, you are the culture, What culture are you building
- 6:47and what are you allowing? What's the accountability level
- 6:50if you're always looking externally like everything is
- 6:53how it is nowadays? I think there's so much room for
- 6:55opportunity if you do think that to separate your guys even more
- 6:59and be different, if that's what you believe.
- 7:01But, but personally, I think there's so many great kids out
- 7:03there. There's great families and
- 7:05everybody's just constantly searching.
- 7:06That's what I think I've realized, at least from a, a
- 7:09business or or club standpoint, is a lot of parents don't know
- 7:12the answers. A lot of kids don't know the
- 7:14answers. They're relying on somebody.
- 7:16So can you be a voice that they're relying on that is
- 7:18speaking truth, but also helping point them in the right
- 7:21direction and and not be a snake oil salesman and be able to say,
- 7:25hey, this is where you're at. This is where you need to get
- 7:28to. But also like what do you want
- 7:30out of this? I think so much of it goes back
- 7:32to everybody's chasing something.
- 7:34At what point are you going to actually enjoy the game of
- 7:36basketball? I think that's really important.
- 7:37Yeah, no, that was that was really, really good.
- 7:40You know, at the beginning you talked about your your path a
- 7:42little bit in college when you stop playing, what led you to
- 7:46chase starting shooters HQ and, you know, run your own thing
- 7:50versus maybe a more traditional route of OK, I'm going to state
- 7:53or you and GA and work my way up or, you know, get on that path.
- 7:56Yeah, I think for me, part of it does go back to what I think a
- 8:00lot of basketball players experience in college, which,
- 8:03you know, it's the reality of what it is.
- 8:04It's not necessarily a negative. You are relying on other people
- 8:07to determine your value. And I think as a player that
- 8:10that is basketball, right? I have to prove myself to
- 8:13somebody that's making a decision on how much am I going
- 8:15to be able to do something. And I've just seen as a whole,
- 8:19not at any school in particular, how you really have to climb a
- 8:22ladder to be in the coaching world, especially at the college
- 8:24level. And so much of that goes back to
- 8:26relationships, but it also goes back to what do people think of
- 8:30you? What do people want to let you
- 8:32do? And as a entrepreneurial side,
- 8:34you get to decide that. You decide everything.
- 8:37If you fail, it's on you. If anything goes wrong, it's
- 8:39your fault. You can't point fingers at
- 8:41anybody else because you're building something yourself.
- 8:44And I think that was a refreshing time to be able to do
- 8:46that instead of being within a system of be here, do this.
- 8:50Make sure that you're meeting this standard.
- 8:53Now. It's can I drive myself to be
- 8:55successful and can I build something without anybody making
- 8:58me or telling me? You're saying, hey, right now
- 9:01you're here, you're not at this level or hey, we got to get you
- 9:04here. You're able to kind of form your
- 9:06own worlds. And that's what I've really
- 9:08enjoyed about it is, you know, the community that we have
- 9:11within the shooters HQ that I have, there's there's players
- 9:15that I didn't even know were friends and they have a group
- 9:17chat or, or, you know, they go hang out outside of it.
- 9:20And I don't even know that's occurring, but it's, it's a
- 9:22testament to what community are you building for these players
- 9:25to have? What is this world that you're
- 9:28able to keep growing? And that's on me.
- 9:30And it, it doesn't go back to anybody else, which I really
- 9:32enjoy. And I think that that's one of
- 9:35the hardest things as a player is being able to trust people
- 9:39that are determining so much for you and then getting out of
- 9:42that. It's really nice.
- 9:44Yeah, no, I, I definitely feel that.
- 9:46I mean, as strength coaches we talked about in college, like,
- 9:49like, you know, you could have a great strength coach, but you
- 9:51know, maybe the staff's not great or they just don't recruit
- 9:54players And like, you could do a great job, you're going to lose,
- 9:56or you could be a really bad strength coach, but have a great
- 9:58staff and a great recruiting coordinator and you're going to
- 10:01win. But, but for me too, it's like
- 10:03starting, starting a business, like everything, all of my
- 10:06outputs are now fully determined by my inputs.
- 10:08And, and like you're saying, like we, we have full ownership
- 10:11of that. So it's on us, which I think
- 10:12there's a lot of, obviously there's a lot of responsibility
- 10:15with that, but I think it brings a lot of purpose and and passion
- 10:19and what you're doing and. It's been cool to see, you know,
- 10:24I've, I've kind of determined for myself that I'm not
- 10:26necessarily chasing a certain benchmark within this as an
- 10:31entrepreneur. And I think one of the most
- 10:32tempting things, a piece of advice that I have received that
- 10:35I would also say to people in the training world is like, stop
- 10:38trying to go get the best client that you can, quote UN quote, in
- 10:42terms of like this guy plays here or this is what this guy
- 10:45has accomplished. I want to work with him.
- 10:47If you're constantly doing that, then you're missing out on such
- 10:50a core bulk of players that need you.
- 10:53And it if you're really in it for, you know, sustainability
- 10:57and you're also really in it for making an impact, then that's
- 11:01not always going to be the top 1%.
- 11:03And, and for me, I found a lot of joy in helping players that
- 11:06yes, there might be some that are up there, but there might be
- 11:08some that are in the bottom 10% or which is what?
- 11:12And the other 80 percent, 90% of basketball players is, is you're
- 11:16a good basketball player, but maybe you're not an amazing
- 11:19basketball player that's going to get their livelihood paid for
- 11:21it. How do we form that experience
- 11:23for you? What can we do to make that
- 11:25really special for you? And that's what I've really,
- 11:28really enjoyed over the past three to four years.
- 11:30Yeah. And I love that mindset for
- 11:31sure. And now when you talked about
- 11:33your back until you talked about how you kind of had some up and
- 11:36down years within college and with your own shooting.
- 11:40And I remember in the the bonus questions you did for for the
- 11:43book, you talked about how that kind of led you to kind of go on
- 11:46this own journey of trying to discover, yeah, how to develop
- 11:49great shooters and, and how to develop yourself as a shooter.
- 11:51Could you maybe talk about that, that journey of like what
- 11:53happened and the rabbit hole you went down to really learn about
- 11:56shooting, how to how to now apply that to the people you
- 11:59work with? Yeah, definitely.
- 12:00I think it's really interesting. A lot of the, you know, not not
- 12:04myths, but a lot of the misconceptions with shooting
- 12:07development or just development in general is like, well, if I
- 12:12never struggled with it, if I was always a great shooter or if
- 12:15I was always a strong person or always an athletic person.
- 12:18Sometimes that can be a deficiency in your ability to
- 12:21teach something because you didn't have to figure out what
- 12:25it takes to be actually developed in that aspect because
- 12:28naturally you're already good at it.
- 12:30And sometimes you see that with shooting and it's like, oh, you
- 12:32know, everybody's form is different.
- 12:34You know, there's nothing to really do.
- 12:36You just have to naturally be good at it.
- 12:38You can't really change stuff. You just have to work in
- 12:40reality. Like that's not the case.
- 12:42And if you're saying that, then a maybe you've just naturally
- 12:45stumbled on the ability to do it and you can't really grasp
- 12:48somebody else not being able to do it the same way.
- 12:51Or you've just never really gotten into it enough to
- 12:54realize, hey, you can really help somebody become a better
- 12:56shooter if you're focused on the right principles and if you're
- 13:00actually taking a strategic approach to it.
- 13:02So for me, I fell into that category of like, I'll shoot you
- 13:05don't, you don't mess with somebody shot.
- 13:07They just shoot how they shoot. And that worked until it didn't.
- 13:10And for me having a year where, you know, I, I shot 5055% in, in
- 13:16my senior year of high school from 3:00.
- 13:18And I was like, oh, I'm going to go.
- 13:19And then the speed changes and then the length changes and the,
- 13:22the style of play changes and you get to college and then
- 13:24poof, it's like what happened to me.
- 13:26And I ended up shooting like 2025%.
- 13:29And for me, it, it, it was a time where it's like I can keep
- 13:32believing that I have it figured out and I could just hope that I
- 13:36make shots or I can be more honest with myself and think, is
- 13:40there something that I'm not? Is there a box I'm not checking?
- 13:43Is there something that I can do to ensure that I have more
- 13:46consistency with this? Because in reality, especially
- 13:49in the shooting world, if if you ask a kid or you ask a player,
- 13:52hey, you know, what do you struggle with the most?
- 13:53The first answer you always get is consistency because anybody
- 13:56can go out and shoot well one day.
- 13:58Anybody can go 8 for 10 in a singular game.
- 14:01But everybody has bad days except for a small few.
- 14:04And the goal for me is to close that window with players.
- 14:07So for me that was a struggle. And it was like, OK, I know that
- 14:10I can shoot well, but I know that it's not happening all the
- 14:13time right now. So what are the issues here?
- 14:16And I, I really think, and I think that goes back to God's
- 14:19plan in your life. I stumbled upon some of the
- 14:21information initially and some of it was just trial and error
- 14:24where I was like, OK, this is clearly working for me.
- 14:26And a lot of it went back to like how my hips were acting or,
- 14:30or what I was doing with my lower half and also what I was
- 14:32doing with my wrist and my hands.
- 14:34And I was like, OK, I'm on the right track here.
- 14:36I need to figure out more of what I'm doing right now and see
- 14:40if there's some themes to this or see if there's actually some
- 14:42weight to the concepts that I'm focusing on now.
- 14:45And from there, I was really able to stumble on some
- 14:48different learning styles and some different ways to work on
- 14:51things as opposed to just shoot on the gun all the time.
- 14:54And from there, I really deep dive into the mechanics.
- 14:56And that's where I learned so much from.
- 14:58From Mike Dunn, who's up in the Northeast, and then also from
- 15:02Drew Hanlon, Steve d'agostino. The thing that I love now is
- 15:06like if, if you're, if you have Internet, you can almost figure
- 15:09anything out. And for me, that was a key,
- 15:12especially with with Mike Dunn. And he's amazing because he's
- 15:16accessible, right? And he's very willing to help
- 15:18people out. And for me coming into a
- 15:21relationship of, hey, I really want to learn not just for
- 15:24myself, but I want to learn everything.
- 15:26That was huge because I was able to look at it a little more
- 15:28holistically, not just for the problems that I have shooting
- 15:31the basketball, but now, OK, I believe that you can help people
- 15:35and you can be more specific on what you're teaching within
- 15:37shooting. Now let me learn everything I
- 15:40can about it. And then from there, the number
- 15:43one thing, and I'm sure you would agree in terms of strength
- 15:45and conditioning or any other aspect, is if you work with
- 15:48individuals, you Start learning so much quicker because you have
- 15:52to deal with their problems and problem solve on a case by case
- 15:55basis instead of just learning concepts.
- 15:57I think that's one thing when you look at Instagram, if you
- 16:00look at social media and it's like, Hey, I teach this or I'm
- 16:02an expert on this. If you're just presenting
- 16:05information and concepts and like, Hey, this works.
- 16:08Do this drill with your players, but you're not like actually
- 16:12problem solving individuals. It's it, it's not as impactful.
- 16:16If you can say, Hey, I got this player to do this better.
- 16:20Now you know that what you're teaching works instead of just
- 16:23saying here's a theory. I think I'm correct on this.
- 16:26So that for me, over the past 3-4 years, it's just constant
- 16:29reps of like, hey, I see this problem with the player now this
- 16:32is the same problem that another players have.
- 16:34Here's the drill that we've done with him.
- 16:36And the window of time for improvement has gotten shorter.
- 16:40And some of the concepts when we talk about cutting the fluff
- 16:42have been removed where now, you know, if your ball pass
- 16:45struggles, I know it's this, this or this.
- 16:47We're immediately going to this. So I'd like to think it's gotten
- 16:51to a point where I've seen everything, but you'll stumble
- 16:54across a player that's doing something that you've never seen
- 16:56before at some point. So that's kind of been the
- 16:58development of my ability to teach shooting.
- 17:01So I'm really fortunate in some ways to have kind of just found
- 17:05the right information, but then from there, being able to build
- 17:08on that has been really impactful.
- 17:09Yeah, no, that's awesome. And you've mentioned it a couple
- 17:12of times about cutting the fluff.
- 17:13And in those those bonus questions we mentioned, you had
- 17:16this quote where you're like, if an NBA GM was watching you do
- 17:19the workout, what would you put the players through, right.
- 17:22You cut the fluff and every possible drill or activity
- 17:25involved, you'd go straight to the most important things that
- 17:27create the highest dividend and return in on investment
- 17:30possible. Just do that all the time and I
- 17:32I love that quote. And that's Mike Dunn.
- 17:35I I got that from him. I thought that was amazing.
- 17:38So, so thinking about that is the, if we think about it with
- 17:42skill development or, you know, team development, what, what are
- 17:46the things that we are cutting? And then and then with that same
- 17:49concept, do you that, do you try and apply that to your life also
- 17:53like beyond just basketball or or working with kids and skill
- 17:56development? Yeah, to answer that part first,
- 17:58my wife would say you need to figure out how to add more
- 18:01fluff. Because I think for me it's, it
- 18:02aligns with my personality trait of like if there's something
- 18:05that I know that's important and I need to work on it, like I'm
- 18:08excellent at that, right? And then the other areas I need
- 18:11to do the dishes more, right? I need to, there's things that,
- 18:15yeah, I believe in that so much that there's other areas that I
- 18:18could probably do better in. But for me, that's a concept
- 18:21that I'm always trying to improve on as a life skill,
- 18:25right? But in terms of the development
- 18:26side and the training side, I, I would like to think that at some
- 18:30point players will come in the gym and say, man, we keep doing
- 18:33the same drills over and over again because they're so
- 18:36important. And I think one thing that you
- 18:38can be really guilty of, especially early on as a
- 18:41development person, is throwing so much stuff and hoping that it
- 18:45sticks. And also thinking that
- 18:47complexity equals progress, right?
- 18:50And in reality, the ability to take a lot of complexity and
- 18:53boil it down to simplicity is the most important thing you can
- 18:56do as a coach. If you even look at NBA offenses
- 18:59right, a lot of it isn't what you see on Twitter.
- 19:02It's not down screen, cross screen, pass, cut, boom, boom,
- 19:05boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Because in reality, these guys
- 19:08are so good that they need to be able to do certain things
- 19:11really, really well. And a lot of that is pick and
- 19:12roll. A lot of it's basic reads or
- 19:14even isolation stuff. But if you extrapolate that and
- 19:17say, OK, the best players in the world are doing simple concepts
- 19:20extremely well at an elite level, how can we take that
- 19:24down? Because I think we look at the
- 19:26highest hanging fruit a lot of the times and say, OK, how do I
- 19:28try to make that attainable for the guys that I'm working with?
- 19:31And in reality, it's not, hey, let's work on the most basic
- 19:36fundamentals. That's not the goal.
- 19:37To me. The goal is what are the most
- 19:39lowest hanging fruits that are applicable across every level?
- 19:43And then how do we spend as much time as possible on those?
- 19:46Because there's no way that you can actually reach a point that
- 19:49you're too good at any of those. So for me, within basketball,
- 19:52that's the ability to make open shots.
- 19:54That's the ability to make good decisions when you drive the
- 19:56basketball. And one thing that I obviously
- 19:59would have helped me that I've been enlightened on is the
- 20:01ability to be physical on defense.
- 20:03And that goes back to the weight room, but it also goes back to
- 20:06just learning and being able to apply.
- 20:09I think, you know, when we talk about isolation moves or we talk
- 20:13about finishing options or even in the weight room, I'm sure you
- 20:17could attest that there's there's stuff that you could do
- 20:20that's nuanced. That can be a cool concept to
- 20:23add in. But is that really going to
- 20:26result in the bulk of what we're looking for?
- 20:28If a kid needs to gain 20 lbs or lose 20 lbs or jump 5 inches
- 20:32higher, I think it can be very enticing to try to be wide with
- 20:38what you're great at as opposed just to, to deep with what
- 20:41you're great at. So that's where I've really
- 20:42landed on stuff. And you know, I'm still
- 20:44constantly finding out if that's true all the time.
- 20:47And obviously there's areas where it's not, but I I have
- 20:50been able to see progress and see that it works in certain
- 20:53areas where again, I want to double down on that when I see
- 20:56progress. Yeah.
- 20:58No, that's, I think those are great points.
- 20:59And like you mentioned, decision making, and I know that's a big
- 21:03part of the development you do rather than, you know, just on
- 21:06air just doing the same things over and over for, you know,
- 21:09kids that are maybe not able to work with Someone Like You.
- 21:12And then like they're just going and shooting on their own or
- 21:14like for me, like I shoot before or after I lift.
- 21:16Like if you don't have other bodies there and, and actual
- 21:19people would have reads and, and and decisions and small sided
- 21:22games. Like, how do we still develop in
- 21:25a way that those skills can show up in the game and it's valuable
- 21:29rather than just wasting that time?
- 21:31Yeah, I think, and it goes back to this idea of maybe it's
- 21:34stumbling on the right information, right?
- 21:35But if you can have an idea of what is translatable to winning
- 21:41basketball, there's so much on the Internet that you can then
- 21:45go to, right? I think if you can start to see
- 21:48the way that good basketball occurs in a lot of it's being
- 21:50able to get a paint touch and being able to play off 2 feet
- 21:54and make simple plays for other people, straight line drives,
- 21:57moving and then establishing yourself.
- 21:59A lot of it comes back to footwork.
- 22:01But to me, it can also come back to this idea of what everybody
- 22:06would do in the 90s and the 2000s, which is I'm going to go
- 22:08watch Kobe, I'm going to go watch AI, and then I'm going to
- 22:11go to the gym and try to do what I just saw on the mixtape.
- 22:14You can do the exact same thing with YouTube now.
- 22:17All you have to do is look up, you know, look up the teams that
- 22:20have won national championships in college and then just watch
- 22:23and see what Cooper flag is doing or see what Villanova does
- 22:27when they're driving the ball. If you can just go pick out what
- 22:31looks like it causes winning, Take those clips and go work on
- 22:35that, right? Jalen Brunson is an excellent
- 22:37example. If you just watch what he does,
- 22:39it could be how he uses his offhand, it could be what he
- 22:42does when he finishes his drives.
- 22:43Just go do that on your own and you'll start putting yourself on
- 22:47a path of the right direction. So I think in terms of
- 22:49individual improvement or, or doing stuff on air, it's so
- 22:53important that you're not wasting time because one, one
- 22:55thing that I really believe in and I've, I've heard other
- 22:58trainers try to kind of sell it the other way.
- 23:00If I can expose you to a lot of different concepts, you'll pick
- 23:03up on the stuff that works and you know, you'll, you'll leave
- 23:06behind the stuff that isn't working.
- 23:08I completely I really disagree with that.
- 23:10If you work on three dribble pull ups, you're going to try to
- 23:14use three dribble pull ups. If you're constantly forming
- 23:17habits of those play style that you have in the way that you do
- 23:20things, that's going to be what you try to carry over with
- 23:23recency bias to a game. So for me, when we talk about
- 23:26decision making and what you're working on it, it definitely
- 23:29goes back to what are the habits that you're forming and that can
- 23:33be on air. What are the ideas in your brain
- 23:35that you're trying to do even when you are visualizing
- 23:38defenders or whatever? Because if it is like I'm going
- 23:41to make a move and then shoot in reality, you have to understand
- 23:45that there's probably somebody standing right there, right?
- 23:47So are you able to just think in game context and then be real
- 23:51with yourself? Is this something that I should
- 23:53actually work on? Because it's, it's not that we
- 23:56want to be great at everything. And part of that goes back to
- 23:59realizing who you are. If you're not a 6-8 jump out the
- 24:03gym guy, you're probably going to be able to do two or three
- 24:07things at a certain level. So why would you spend time not
- 24:11getting great at those things first and then if you have time,
- 24:14go do the other stuff? Yeah, yeah.
- 24:16It always kill me in pregame warmups watching some, some, you
- 24:20know, big men doing step back threes and and doing all that
- 24:24for 40 minutes before the game when all they needed to do is a
- 24:28rim run and rebound the ball and play defense.
- 24:31And that's, that's another conversation, Yeah.
- 24:35And that's not to limit the creativity or the ability to
- 24:38work on whatever you want to work on.
- 24:39It's just knowing, even if it's at the minimum, acknowledging,
- 24:43hey, I'm doing this supplementally, like this isn't
- 24:46what I plan to do all the time, but I'm going to work on it.
- 24:49To me, that makes a big difference because you're able
- 24:52to approach it from a mental standpoint of I don't have to
- 24:55use this. And I think when we when when
- 24:58dad pays for me to go to a lesson and then I work on
- 25:01something now that expects me to do the exact same thing in the
- 25:04game, I expect to do it. And now we're all disappointed
- 25:07when I don't use it. When in reality, that's just
- 25:09something that you should maybe use sometimes.
- 25:11And it's OK to work on that stuff, but don't expect that
- 25:14that's going to translate. And that's what I see so much,
- 25:17is a frustration of players of why is what I'm working on not
- 25:21translating to a game because it shouldn't, right?
- 25:25Yeah, no, that's like one, one thought I've had like I don't
- 25:28know if you've heard like like Google and some of these other
- 25:30companies for their employees have like 20% time where it's
- 25:33like the employees get 20% autonomy time to work on
- 25:36whatever they want and just explore whatever project.
- 25:39And then the 80% is right for the business, whatever they need
- 25:42to do. And I thought about that idea of
- 25:44like, OK, what if in like skilled development, it's like
- 25:4780% is OK, we're working on stride sauce.
- 25:49We're working on these things that apply into how we play.
- 25:52And then and especially in like the summer or the offseason, OK,
- 25:5520%, like what do you wanna work on?
- 25:58And we're gonna do that and you're gonna get explore that.
- 26:00But still, the 80% is how we play.
- 26:02And then maybe once we get further and further into the
- 26:05season, it's like, OK, we need to direct this more and more to
- 26:09your role in the team, how we need to play, but having those
- 26:12periods where we give them that autonomy.
- 26:14But understand it's not 100%, it's not whatever you want to
- 26:16work on it. You know we can do what we need
- 26:19to do, but then give you a little bit of what you want to.
- 26:21Yeah, I, I think that's so important.
- 26:23And I think being real with players about acknowledging,
- 26:27hey, this is probably what is the most important, but we don't
- 26:30want to burn you out and we want to allow you to feel like you're
- 26:33expanding. I think it's just so important
- 26:35to have those conversations to create clarity and and kind of
- 26:38focus back on the reality while still providing an environment
- 26:42where they can expand and explore.
- 26:45Yeah, yeah. Now if from a from a, you know,
- 26:4910,000 foot view looking at development rather than more so
- 26:53specific to sessions or anything, right.
- 26:56If you could take a young kid like let's say like elementary
- 26:59age kid, and you had like total control from when they're that
- 27:02age to all the way through high school, what would that path of
- 27:06development look like to make them long term the best
- 27:10basketball player? Yeah.
- 27:11I think that's such an interesting question because if
- 27:13you said third grade and then you said 7th grade, I look at it
- 27:18completely different. And the way that I've changed my
- 27:21mindset on it is at first you would think, yes, let's work on
- 27:27the fundamentals. Let's build, build, build,
- 27:28build, build, and then let's start expanding.
- 27:31But let's focus on, you know, what are the things that are
- 27:33important for you? And for me, that's that's
- 27:36completely shifted where if I had to draw it out from 4th
- 27:39grade to college, I think I would actually throw the book at
- 27:43a player from 4th to 6th, maybe 7th and really not even worry
- 27:48about, hey, you need to play the game the right way.
- 27:51Just get as good at all the coolest, this craziest stuff you
- 27:55could, all the crossovers, all the isolation moves.
- 27:58Expose yourself as much as possible to all this stuff and
- 28:02learn how to move, learn how to play.
- 28:05And then as you get into middle school, how do you play good
- 28:08basketball? Because before that age with the
- 28:10reality of what the games look like, I, I, I also think it's
- 28:13hilarious when, when parents think their kids are amazing in,
- 28:16in fifth grade because you're either twice as big as everybody
- 28:19else or you're more athletic and nobody else knows what to do to
- 28:23stop you. So at that age, it is just like
- 28:25pure skill. Get as good as you can at all
- 28:27this different stuff in middle school.
- 28:29To me, it's, hey, can we teach you how to make the right plays
- 28:32and the right passes all the time to take that skill that you
- 28:35have and build on it and master certain concepts.
- 28:38And then in high school, I think it really comes down to where
- 28:41are you at, right? Are you looking to play in
- 28:43college? If so, how do we continue to
- 28:46push you into the role that you would play at that level?
- 28:49If not, how do we expand you into the best player that you
- 28:52can possibly be for a varsity level and and widen that impact?
- 28:56If you're a college player that's looking at the NBA,
- 28:58that's one thing where, you know, for me, I think it's kind
- 29:02of astounding how it's kind of a new wave, right, where Biggs get
- 29:07taught guard skills. I'm on board with that.
- 29:09But let's say I have a kid, right, and he's 6-8, I think he
- 29:14can play in the NBA. Why would I roll the dice on
- 29:18trying to make him a generational player when I could
- 29:22almost guarantee that he can get paid $30 million by being a
- 29:26three and D guy? So to me, like if if you're
- 29:28looking at an elite player and you're developing that player
- 29:30from the ground up that has great size, make them the best
- 29:33shooter you can and make sure they know how to play good
- 29:36basketball and they're probably going to get paid so much money.
- 29:39But what I see more recently with the elite side is like
- 29:42everybody's trying to become the best well-rounded player they
- 29:45can be that they end up being mediocre at everything.
- 29:50And now how are you going to stand out if you're not actually
- 29:53turning into that generational player, which to me, most of the
- 29:55time that's going to happen anyway if you're really that
- 29:58good at basketball. So let's guarantee that the
- 30:01lowest hanging fruits, you can get paid a lot of money.
- 30:05That's how I would look at it for the elite side.
- 30:07Yeah, that's. Really.
- 30:08Yeah, no, that's cool. Thinking about that kind of
- 30:12position, less basketball and skills.
- 30:14When you think about shifting down to that young age, do you
- 30:17feel like, I guess maybe when's the point when there should be
- 30:20more to find positions or people fit into more roles?
- 30:24Because obviously there's there's you know, the stories of
- 30:26the big kid when he's young, like they just get thrown in the
- 30:28post and they don't learn any skills versus maybe when they
- 30:31are young going through middle school, it's like everybody's
- 30:33going to do everything. So you can develop these skills
- 30:35no matter what size you are now. Because like you're saying, some
- 30:38kids are going to go faster and more developed earlier or later.
- 30:41What's your thought on that? As a coach or a development
- 30:44person, I think it goes back to a direct conflict between
- 30:47winning and development. And for me, like I, I don't
- 30:49think you're, you want to define roles until like 10th grade when
- 30:53you're transitioning from that JV to varsity level.
- 30:57At that point, yes, OK, we got to figure out what is, what is
- 31:00my high school coach want me to do?
- 31:01But before that, like I'm willing to lose a game and let
- 31:05the tallest kid on my team shoot 10 threes because in reality,
- 31:09I'm holding them back. If I'm saying, hey, you can win
- 31:12a 8th grade championship by going down by the rim the whole
- 31:15time, sure, great, good for you. But in two years, are we going
- 31:19to hit a wall because of this? So I would I would say
- 31:21transitioning into that varsity level of basketball is when I
- 31:24would really start considering roles.
- 31:27And before that, it really comes down to the coach and the
- 31:29ability to go through the growing pains with players.
- 31:31Because you can define roles in fifth grade and say, hey, go
- 31:34score 30 and you'll stand in the corner.
- 31:36But in reality, how how much are we helping everybody?
- 31:39So yeah. No, that's really good.
- 31:40As as we think about development and you know, maybe thinking
- 31:44more in Shears HQ right here and you've got a group and you've
- 31:47got different skill levels, different ability levels, right?
- 31:51How are you scaling that development that you're teaching
- 31:54for those different individuals and different abilities within a
- 31:57group? Yeah.
- 31:58I think, you know, based on our group sizes, what we've been
- 32:01able to do that's beneficial along with having we've had
- 32:04three to four coaches there, which has been really beneficial
- 32:07for the ratio. It's actually been beneficial, I
- 32:09think to have those larger small groups because we get that
- 32:13larger range of players where we're putting the smaller or
- 32:17the, the guys who are a little less skilled together.
- 32:20We do a lot of partner stuff. And then we're also grouping the
- 32:23the guys that are a little bit higher level or varsity or
- 32:26college level. And that way they're able to
- 32:28have game like competition within the sessions that is more
- 32:31catered to them. But also in terms of the
- 32:34shooting development, one thing that I I feel like I've gotten
- 32:37decent at over the last couple years is grouping based on
- 32:41needs. So generally when we talk about
- 32:43mechanical concepts, if three people have ball path issues,
- 32:47they might not be the same ball path issues, but we can target
- 32:50some drill those to those concepts where they're going to
- 32:53spend 10 minutes together and this group is going to spend 10
- 32:56minutes together working on something completely different.
- 32:58If if it has to do with sequencing or how they're using
- 33:01their legs. So usually even within a group
- 33:03of any amount of players or, or, or different skill levels, you
- 33:07can find commonalities within what they need to work on
- 33:10conceptually, especially with the mechanics.
- 33:13But worst case scenario, right, there's concepts that apply
- 33:16across the board to everybody where hey, we can't really find
- 33:20groupings or commonalities within these players.
- 33:22We do know what all these guys need.
- 33:24And then that's the worst case scenario was we're still
- 33:27checking off boxes that are beneficial to everyone.
- 33:30But but I've tried to cater individually as much as possible
- 33:34by by finding what aligns with individual players.
- 33:37Yeah. OK.
- 33:38Shifting gears a little bit from your perspective as, as both
- 33:41when you were a basketball player and then now as a coach,
- 33:45how, how can strength coaches best train basketball players to
- 33:51become better basketball players and, and, and have that physical
- 33:55development piece that actually enhances skill for them?
- 33:57Yeah, You know, this might be an entirely uneducated opinion, but
- 34:02the the largest thing that I see, the biggest issue that I
- 34:05see with players is they reach a level where their physicality
- 34:10does not meet the standard of the level that they're playing.
- 34:13And if you look at Alex Caruso, for instance, like he, he's just
- 34:16doing an unbelievable job in these playoffs of guarding
- 34:19whoever he needs to guard and taking care of whatever matchup
- 34:22he does. But he is such a handsy,
- 34:24physical defender. I think if you can prepare your
- 34:26body for that, that's everything.
- 34:28And I see a lot of weaker players, right?
- 34:32Again, this goes back to my experience of like, if, if
- 34:35you're a great shooter, but you're skinny and you can't
- 34:38physically contain a player, get out of the gym.
- 34:42Don't, don't shoot for like 6 months and just lift and lift
- 34:45and lift and try to, to bring that weakness up because that
- 34:50can be extremely detrimental. So for me, like I've almost
- 34:54branched away from recommending that guys do basketball like
- 34:58workouts because you just need to get bigger.
- 35:00Almost everybody that plays basketball needs to get bigger.
- 35:03And, and to me that that's everything.
- 35:05Unless you already have that frame on you, then I think
- 35:08you've earned the right and you have the reward.
- 35:11Now to branch into more specialized ideas or or OK, how
- 35:16do I work on my movement laterally that that transfers
- 35:19directly to play? But like, why?
- 35:21Why would I tell a kid to do that if if he's getting pushed
- 35:25around? To me, that's the biggest thing
- 35:27that I see lacking. That's a cool perspective to
- 35:29hear thinking about offseason and and then high school scene
- 35:33with AAU and, and, you know, club teams.
- 35:36What are your, what are your thoughts on the positives of, of
- 35:40AAU? And, and obviously like,
- 35:43hopefully like the way you know, I know you're running teams, so
- 35:45you're probably trying to do at a really high level there.
- 35:47But also what do you think are the downsides of it?
- 35:50And, and maybe what do you see as like the future of
- 35:52development? I know you've been part of
- 35:54running three on three leagues and, and kind of where that fits
- 35:57in and, and maybe where you see development going or where you
- 35:59you hope development goes. Yeah, You know, I, I, I think
- 36:03it's so interesting how these circuits have developed,
- 36:05especially on the basketball side lately.
- 36:07It's, it's, it's continuing. I don't think it'll necessarily
- 36:10change to to kind of be the Wild West every year here.
- 36:13It's different. There's a lot of different
- 36:15options. So but you do have the ones at
- 36:16the top and then from there you have a a large selection of
- 36:19options. I think one of the most
- 36:21important things to do is embrace AAU for what it is.
- 36:24And I think one thing that can be really tempting is to compare
- 36:27it to something else and be like, well, it's nothing like
- 36:29high school basketball because it, well, of course it's not
- 36:32right. It's a completely different
- 36:34system that's being set up because everyone is looking out
- 36:37for themselves. I said this on a a different
- 36:39podcast, but why would we pretend like we're in this for
- 36:44the group, right? You're coming here in the
- 36:47spring, in the summer and in your offseason to get exposure
- 36:50for yourself, get better for yourself and find a fit that
- 36:54works for you. So at no point are you going to
- 36:56run across an AAU program where players are willingly
- 37:00sacrificing their own benefit for the group because that's not
- 37:04what you're paying for. That's not what you're in it
- 37:06for. So it starts with recognizing
- 37:08the landscape as it is and saying, OK, how do we take this
- 37:11product that's not going to change and how do we turn it
- 37:15into the best possible thing it can be?
- 37:18And a lot of that goes back to getting guys that are willing to
- 37:20move the ball. That's obviously one of the the
- 37:22big things that people think of with AAU is it's just a bunch of
- 37:25isolation. And that's very true because it
- 37:28is. So how do you form enough of a
- 37:30culture where guys are on the same page to take the right
- 37:33shots? And part of that goes back to
- 37:35one thing that we've done as a program to hopefully make it
- 37:37more fun and also to help these guys improve, which is playing
- 37:40as fast as possible because we're trying to play more
- 37:43minutes, right? Or at least give the maximum
- 37:46amount of these players optimal minutes.
- 37:49Also the highest points per game possible and also the most reps
- 37:52possible. And if we can double the
- 37:55possessions in a game in order to do that.
- 37:57So everybody's getting better and improving, I think that's a
- 37:59big thing. So again, I keep saying this
- 38:02double down concept, AAU is innately selfish.
- 38:05It's innately a fast-paced physical game.
- 38:07Let's work around that instead of criticizing those aspects as
- 38:11something that that we should look down on.
- 38:13But I do think, you know, when you talk about three on three
- 38:15and you talk about these other aspects and offseason
- 38:17development, I think taking a you for what it is and then
- 38:21layering around it is really important.
- 38:23I don't think you need to try to substitute the product as is and
- 38:27say, hey, this is trash. Let's do something better
- 38:29because you can't get that amount of people to buy into
- 38:32something completely new when these systems and so much money
- 38:36is pouring into the landscape as it is.
- 38:38So for us, this three on three league, right, it's a great
- 38:41change of pace because no coaches yelling at you, no
- 38:44parents yelling at you, You're just out there competing.
- 38:46You're getting a ton of touches, you're moving the ball, you're
- 38:49constantly playing. It's almost the opposite of what
- 38:51you might get on a given weekend in AAU.
- 38:53And I think that's important to have that contrast, especially
- 38:56when you look at, you know, the research for ecological dynamics
- 39:00and CLA and all this stuff where it's like, Hey, you're learning
- 39:02environments are going to dictate a lot of your
- 39:04improvement level. If you're constantly being put
- 39:07in the same environment, you're probably not going to improve at
- 39:10A at a rapid pace. So if we can just provide by
- 39:13these different environments for players to have to adapt and
- 39:17work on different things, right, Your high school programs going
- 39:19to operate differently than your AAU program and the three on
- 39:23three league. And when you go play pick up,
- 39:25like if you can just go to the park right now, you have all
- 39:28these different ways you have to interact with other players
- 39:30because that's what basketball is, right?
- 39:32It's not baseball, it's not football.
- 39:33You're not going out there and throwing a pitch or guarding a
- 39:37receipt or or sorry, but you know, playing safety where you
- 39:40have a job that you need to do. You have to be able to problem
- 39:44solve with these other people on the floor.
- 39:46So having a bunch of different environments that you're doing
- 39:49that in, I think that can be really, really beneficial.
- 39:52That's, you know, that's really cool.
- 39:53I've never thought about it like that, but you know, I think it's
- 39:55a great point of like what what is the purpose of each one of
- 39:58these rules? And and instead of just this is
- 40:01what basketball should be and it's not it's bad, right?
- 40:05Like, OK, this is how we're help.
- 40:06This is what we're using to help the individuals and this aspect
- 40:08in this aspect and then hopefully put it all together to
- 40:12work together, make the best. Basketball player that we can't.
- 40:15That goes back to that's my opinion on it.
- 40:18If I was to say this is correct, there's somebody that disagrees
- 40:21with me. So now is everything he's doing
- 40:23for these kids wrong? No, that.
- 40:25But I think it's important to acknowledge, like, there's so
- 40:28many different ways to do things, so why can't we just
- 40:32accept all these different ways and try to make them as good as
- 40:34they can be? Yeah, that's awesome.
- 40:36Well, cool. So I like to end the podcast
- 40:38with with these three questions. And the first one for you is,
- 40:43and you know, we may have, we kind of touched on this a little
- 40:45bit with the shooting journey, but when you realize you need to
- 40:48improve a skill set, like how do you close that gap?
- 40:51That's a good question. I think the first thing that you
- 40:54have to do is be real with yourself where you're at.
- 40:58You know, if if we're talking about physically like
- 41:01acknowledging that where you're at is not good enough.
- 41:05And in the second piece of that, and I think helping you
- 41:08acknowledge that is surrounding yourself with the voices that,
- 41:12and again, this goes back to you, you can't always do this.
- 41:15A lot of us are flying blind, especially if I'm a parent of a
- 41:18player or I'm a player. I don't necessarily know that
- 41:21what I'm being told is correct, but I have to trust it because
- 41:23this is the resource in front of me.
- 41:25I think as much as you can go back to trying to find who is a
- 41:29winner, trying to find who has helped people and then going
- 41:33from there and working your way back on getting guidance from
- 41:36those people. I think that's the most
- 41:39important thing you can do because you don't know what you
- 41:42don't know. And I think that's something
- 41:44that's really important to recognize for players as
- 41:46trainers, as players, as parents.
- 41:48I'm incapable of getting this player from point A to point B
- 41:52unless somebody with the right information helps me do so.
- 41:55So I think willingly seeking out where are the results?
- 41:59How do I go find those results and and take them like for for
- 42:03you, for example, right? You've helped multiple players
- 42:06that I know where now OK, yes, I have this resource.
- 42:10If anybody has this problem, I know exactly where to send them
- 42:13right. And I think that's important to
- 42:16recognize is I don't know better.
- 42:19I, I won't figure this out on my own, who can point me in the
- 42:22right direction and I'll go from there.
- 42:24And then again, I think from there it goes back to attacking
- 42:29the low hanging fruits, but also knowing yourself in your own
- 42:33development journey of what is the best way for me to do this?
- 42:36I think there's some people that can just go grind and get after
- 42:39it and say, hey, I'm gonna go put on 20 lbs.
- 42:42And other people, that is extremely difficult because of
- 42:44their habits and the way that they do things.
- 42:46So it's also being able to put yourself in the right
- 42:49environments that are conducive for your improvement.
- 42:52Some players just don't do well on their own.
- 42:55So it's like, OK, I'm not going to work out, work out on my own
- 42:58ever. I need to join a class.
- 43:00I need to do this. So I think layering yourself
- 43:02with the right information and then the right environments,
- 43:05that's going to dictate so much more than just like grinding it
- 43:08out. Yeah, no, that's, that's great.
- 43:10Second, second question. So you've mentioned a couple, I
- 43:14think that'll probably be some of your answers, but who are,
- 43:16you know, scale of three of the people or situations in your
- 43:20career journey that have impacted your coaching journey
- 43:22the most? Yeah.
- 43:24You know, I think from an early age you, you know, Sam, I think
- 43:26Sam Patterson has has been very influential for me.
- 43:29And just me knowing, for example, a person that has the
- 43:33right information, right. And it's like, OK, I'm going to
- 43:35go from this focal point this, this person can help take me in
- 43:38the right direction. That and then within the
- 43:41shooting development side of it, Mike Dunn is an excellent
- 43:43resource. If if there's a player that's
- 43:45struggling with shooting and they haven't seen his stuff,
- 43:48like start there for six hours and just scroll through
- 43:51Instagram, I think that can be a game changer for applicable game
- 43:54skills like Drew Hanlon and Steve D'agostino are the two
- 43:59best that I think you could find.
- 44:01There's so many other people that are putting out so much
- 44:04good information, but to me it goes back to like the coaching
- 44:07trees right in in college basketball.
- 44:10There's a lot of people that are doing the same stuff when they
- 44:12come from like a origin that they're all aligned with.
- 44:15And if there's someone that you can find that aligns with those
- 44:19people, I think you're on the right track.
- 44:21In terms of some of the other stuff outside of like direct
- 44:25game translation, I really like Coleman Ayers by any means
- 44:28basketball, especially on kind of the the well-rounded dynamic
- 44:33learning and, and being able to get outside the fox a little
- 44:37bit. You know, a lot of the stuff
- 44:38that I've talked about goes back to Hey, attack, that's simplest
- 44:42stuff right in front of you. But again, you have to layer
- 44:45that in with the ability to enjoy learning and developing.
- 44:49And I think he's he's somebody that's done so well and
- 44:52capturing that. And also, again, creating
- 44:54environments where, you know, half the time giving players the
- 44:59right drills to do is great, but putting them in a place where
- 45:04they enjoy getting better, that can make development take off
- 45:08because they're looking forward to being there.
- 45:11They're looking forward to the people that they're interacting
- 45:14with. To me, that's everything.
- 45:16If you're, if you have the right information, but you're a
- 45:19terrible person or you're not fun to be around, how much
- 45:22better are the players gonna get?
- 45:23So I think that that makes a massive impact for sure.
- 45:26Yeah. OK.
- 45:27Last question, this hard one, but what have I not asked you
- 45:30about today that's really important we talk about?
- 45:33I'll start. I, I think I'll think of another
- 45:35one, but the first would be, you know, I think for me, one thing
- 45:38that I, I didn't talk about enough so far, and this is like
- 45:40the, the faith aspect. And for me, one of the biggest
- 45:44words that all of it in terms of my journey and what I've done
- 45:47has come down to is dependence. I mean, that's one thing that we
- 45:50talk about in workouts all the time for, for Southwest
- 45:53Christian, where I'm coaching now, the, the, the slogan that
- 45:55we're going with is fearless, right?
- 45:57What I, what I want to convey to the players is there's a direct
- 46:01translation between dependence on what God has for you and your
- 46:06ability to play with confidence and operate with confidence as
- 46:10an athlete. And it doesn't go back to the
- 46:13cliche that you hear all the time of like, hey, I believe in
- 46:16God. So God's going to make me be
- 46:18good at sports. So often we see that and in
- 46:20postgame interviews, it's like, thank you Jesus for me winning
- 46:24this championship. Sure, like God blesses people.
- 46:28But I think we're missing the point sometimes and
- 46:31acknowledging that if, if I'm a follower of Christ, then the
- 46:35important things in my life are taken care of so much already
- 46:39that this is just a game. And I'm able to acknowledge that
- 46:42more. If my identity is completely
- 46:44wrapped in this because it it determines my value and my
- 46:48purpose in life, then when things go poorly, my entire
- 46:51identity goes poorly and I crumble.
- 46:53But as an athlete, one thing that I'm continuing to try to
- 46:57convey to players is independence does not equal
- 47:01freedom. Your ability to put things on
- 47:03your back and your ability to just like carry someone or carry
- 47:07your own career by outworking everybody is not going to get
- 47:10you as far as you want. And when you talk about the
- 47:13quitting rate with college sports and you talk about the
- 47:15depression that a lot of athletes go through, it's
- 47:18because in reality, all of us are going to fail so much except
- 47:23for like the the people that you can count on a finger that are
- 47:27greats in their sports, right? Whether you're a failure at the
- 47:30professional level or to get to the professional level or in
- 47:33college and you had to transfer a bunch of times or in high
- 47:36school, you didn't make a team. At some point you are going to
- 47:39fail and you are going to be crushed by the sport that you
- 47:44love. So are you as a person going to
- 47:47be crushed by that reality or are you able to operate with a
- 47:51joy because you know that it's all taken care of already?
- 47:55So I think that's really important, especially when we
- 47:57talk about development and all this stuff, the grind idea is so
- 48:01inundated like, like sports is all about taking care of
- 48:05everything yourself, right? And I think ownership is
- 48:08important, but to an extent, so much of what occurs in your
- 48:12athletic career is completely out of your control.
- 48:14You could get hurt, a coach decides you're playing time, you
- 48:17might not get an offer to the school that you want.
- 48:19Your route is completely dictated by other people. 90% of
- 48:24the of the time. So are you going to try to
- 48:27control everything that deeply all the time or can you lean
- 48:31into this idea of kind of going a little bit where the wind
- 48:34takes you and just putting your best self out there and being OK
- 48:38with the result? And a lot of that, you know, for
- 48:40me, especially with this journey of what I've done with the
- 48:42Shooters HQ stuff or anything else that I'm doing, it's all
- 48:46going to work out anyway because I have trust in the reality that
- 48:49I'm not the one pulling all these strings in the 1st place.
- 48:53So yeah. That's powerful, man.
- 48:56No, I love it. This, this has been incredible.
- 48:58If if people wanted to learn more from you and whether it's
- 49:01business, shooting, coaching, whatever, basketball, where
- 49:03should they go or where should they go?
- 49:05Maybe they wanted to connect with you.
- 49:06Yeah, for sure our website shooters-hq.com would be the
- 49:11best place. My contact information is on
- 49:13there. I need to do a better job
- 49:14providing resources digitally and on social media.
- 49:18I've kind of been slacking on that end.
- 49:21But you know, one thing that I find really interesting, and I
- 49:25would, sorry to go on a small tangent before we finish, I
- 49:28would encourage trainers and coaches to consistently do is
- 49:33like, we might post something that has 1000 views, but if you
- 49:35were talking to 1000 people in front of you, you'd feel really
- 49:38good about it. And I think there's so much
- 49:40information that people can provide that they kind of hold
- 49:43back from sharing on the Internet because I think it goes
- 49:47back to you might say something completely different than
- 49:50somebody else, but your idea or your concept or your teaching
- 49:53method might change somebody's life and somebody else's might
- 49:56change another player's. And I think the more that you're
- 49:59willing to put out there, the more you can impact lives and
- 50:02athletes for the better. So I think that's one thing, you
- 50:05know, for people that are maybe on the lower end of it or just
- 50:09starting out with trying to develop their brand or their
- 50:13resources digitally, like, do as much as you can because you're
- 50:16going to help somebody inevitably.
- 50:18But yeah, for us, for me, this year's HQ website and that has
- 50:22all our training information, all our sessions on there.
- 50:24And then my Instagram has some stuff, but I'll I'll start
- 50:27putting more out there. Awesome man, I I appreciate you
- 50:29being on. This is great.
- 50:30Yes, sorry, thanks for having me, it's a lot of fun.