Latest / Let Them Fly - Heather Harries Ed Hub / From Pro basketball to mindset coach, elite athlete Jazz Ferguson

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From Pro basketball to mindset coach, elite athlete Jazz Ferguson · Let Them Fly - Heather Harries Ed Hub

• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to Let Them Fly with me, Heather Harris.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: If you've ever wondered whether your children are on the right path, this podcast is for you.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Each week we share conversations that encourage parents to trust the journey, embrace different definitions of success, and believe more deeply in their children's potential.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Today I'm joined by Jazz Ferguson.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: After 15 years as a professional basketball player across Italy, France, Australia, and the Middle East, Jazz knows what it takes to perform under pressure and to keep showing up.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: Season after season, he's now based in Jobai.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: He's an executive coach and works under Reps with Jazz, working with athletes and leaders on mindset, discipline and performance.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking today about confidence, discipline, and why success on the court or in life is built one rep at a time.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Jazz, welcome to let them fly.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: What do you wish every parent understood about confidence in a child?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, I think confidence for sure can be built in any child.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um words matter, encouragement matters, and the way that um the parents approach any particular activity or school subject, uh the way that it's presented to the child from the parent, uh, that confidence can be built through um that communication and and the way that the parents approach.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: You say reps remove all doubt.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: What does that mean for a child?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, understanding that the habit building aspect of trying to accomplish something or trying to build a skill set, a mindset, um a sports um activity, the element of having to be consistent with building and intentionally doing it even in times where you may not feel like it, uh, where you don't have the attitude or even the energy, you still need to push through to kind of uh continue to build, and that's where the reps and the repetition comes in.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we we push repetition even academically, so um I think yeah, it it is one of those things, it's about resilience, isn't it, to the bottom line.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: You have come from pro basketball, you've did 15 years of pro basketball, you obviously did basketball up until that point.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: What did you learn from being a basketball player?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've learned that in professional sports, you can never be comfortable.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: You have to prove yourself every single day, and in between seasons, your approach has to be that I'm going to prove my value for the next season or the next opportunity.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then you you also understand that when you have a sustainable career, you're going to feel alone at times because the longer you play, the more people you see age out, the more people you see uh opportunities diminish, and then you see this new crop of talent and uh competition that is always you know chomping at your feet for for the opportunities that you have.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's one of the things with it's the older you get is not the better you get.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely not in sports.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's great to have lived experience and to be a player that has uh leadership responsibility, but you age out of sports well before the age of 40.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the average pro-span career through most sports is around five years, and that's for top-level athletes.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: So when you can play 10, 15 years, you're an outlier.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: I had I don't know.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I just thought about that.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: That in any other in any other profession, the older you get, the more valuable you get, but probably not in sports.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so obviously, as a basketball player, as a sports player, you have wins and you have losses.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: What does losing teach you, do you think?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: So in basketball, losing teaches you to bounce back quickly.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: You have to have a very short memory, um, particularly in basketball, because you can have a bad possession, but you cannot compound your mistakes because then you're hurting your team in a major way.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: We usually practice five or six times a week, then we play once or twice a week.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: So you have a consistent pattern of winning and losing.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can't recuperate from a loss, that can become a snowball effect.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of one loss, uh learning from that, you could that could turn to six, seven, eight losses in a row.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have to reassess performance and chemistry and coaches.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: All those things are are huge factors in in sports.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: So mentally, how do you bounce back after losing?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because I mean, we obviously hear about losing streaks and winning streaks, and I guess one loss, it kind of it's it's not ever just one, is it?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's never one loss.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: You your statistics say that you're gonna lose um not as much as you win, but you're gonna endure some losses.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the way that you you really bounce back that, bounce back from that for me has always been I am not a results-based person.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a preparation-based person.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I trust my preparation.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: I rely on the work that I put on before the season starts.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then during that season, the habits, the habits and behaviors that I carry over, arriving early, staying late, but taking care of my body, eating correctly, these are all factors that uh compound into results because seasons are long and that durability piece absolutely matters.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, I just think, I mean, I think one of the things that we see these days is resilience in children and the bouncing back, they're finding it really hard.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's a tough balance with kids in sports or activities or even in school.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh sometimes the expectation is set a little too high.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you have to find uh a balance in where expectation can be met and then help them build into creating the confidence to have a better expectation for themselves.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think that aspect of having a real conversation with the child about the expectations they have of themselves, the expectations of the parents or the environment around them, and then putting them in the best situation to kind of achieve that or work towards that.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: I know you do a lot of work with children and very successfully because you're very good at getting to their level.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: How would you negotiate with a child or kind of reposition a loss or a bad mark or a bad grade with them?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: First, I try to connect with them.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: I let them know that seeing me as a professional athlete doesn't mean that I didn't live up to a standard many times in my life.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: So these bad marks or these rough patches that you're going through as a child, it's a normal um pattern in life, but you have to learn from it.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I try to connect with them at the level that they are, meet them there, and then challenge them in efficient ways, in sustainable ways where they can respond and still be encouraged with um achieving a goal or taking a step forward.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I mean I think I think you have that lovely personality where you do connect really well.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I've seen you connect with with children before, and you do it in a very, very nice way.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't come across as one of these sort of elite athletes, you but you have that reputation which I think stands you in such good stead.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um motivation.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: So obviously, you know, Monday we wake up and we're like, it's Monday, I'm going to do, but come Wednesday, that motivation has kind of just disappeared slightly, and then we go, Oh, well, we'll start again on Monday.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: How do you keep motivation constant?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: I try to tell everyone that I come in contact with that motivation is an emotion, it's a mood.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you depend on motivation for anything significant in your life, you're probably gonna come up short because depending on motivation means that on Monday you're motivated and well rested, on Wednesday you're tired and you're looking towards Friday.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is where habit building and routine and structure is essential.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: It has to be a pillar of like your lifestyle to not depend on motivation, depend on what you want to accomplish.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Having the ability to focus on a bigger picture or putting yourself through a journey where there may be a reward down the line, but you have to go through this process first.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And motivation is not going to get you there.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing when you do have motivation along with the skills and disciplines and habits, but that is the thing that you can depend on the least in these journeys.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think I yeah, so it's consistent consistency, isn't it?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's is sort of the bottom line for everything these days.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: You've obviously had lots of pressure in your career, of sort of very big games and I guess finals to your name.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: How do you take that that kind of skill set and teach children to handle pressure, whether it for them it's a game which is probably not on the same level as you or an exam even?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I always talk to children in a way where pressure becomes a positive thing.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I talk about pressure being a privilege.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, if you have pressure in sports as a child, it means that you are in a big moment or you have created an expectation where people want to see you perform.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same in school for exams.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you're preparing to take an exam that's gonna help you get to the college level, well, this is a significant step in your life.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is something you have to embrace.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: You've prepared for it your entire life.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a moment where you take that step.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And when you can present pressure as something that is a privilege or something that you've earned, it feels less of a negative connotation that's usually attached to pressure.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: So as an athlete, that's always been my approach as well when I talk about the preparation and using my imagination of well, I've always dreamed about these moments.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: So why would it I embrace these pressure-filled moments after all of this preparation?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that's a really lovely way of looking at it, actually.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um obviously, one of the things, you know, a child can get very much tied into an identity, like for instance, you, you know, an elite athlete or professional athlete.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Why is that somewhat risky for a child?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Being tied to an identity will limit your full potential as a human being.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we see this a lot in young athletes because with the young athletes, when you ask them what they want to be when they grow up, everybody wants to be a footballer, everybody wants to make the NBA, and we just understand as adults that the probability of you being LeBron James or Killiam Mbappe is one in 10 million.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: So the way that you nurture that and and push the kids to still be engulfed in who they are as a person, encourage them to be curious, encourage them to try different sports, encourage them to try different activities, connect with friends who are totally different than you, embrace different cultures, and really have an open mind to the world.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think living here in Dubai, you have the ultimate opportunity to do that because we have people from all walks of life in all different schools and speaking different languages.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: So um encouraging kids to be curious, not sticking to one particular um element of your life, whether it's sports or art, and when you figure out where your gift is, embrace that gift, but always have that open mind.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um you do a lot of mentoring for young children.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: What would you say to a parent that the role of a mentor is that a loving parent isn't?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, the the kids are really advanced these days as far as like technologically, and sometimes they know a little bit more than what the parents may understand.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I've learned how to become a bridge between the kid and the parent.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's with communication, sometimes it's with encouragement and motivation, and or being a role model.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think with a lot of the kids that I've worked with, there's been different elements of what the parent needs and what the child needs.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's a hand-in-hand kind of fit because with younger children, we have to be in sync with the parent.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I think having an open line of communication, but also making sure that we are meeting the needs of what specifically the parent wants for the child or what specifically the child needs is is what I kind of specialize in.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that element of influence is always at the forefront.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's very, very hard because I think also children and parents don't always communicate however much they think they do.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: They really don't.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: So it's great, great when they've got something to do.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: What would you say to a parent whose child, the moment the going gets tough, says, I'm done.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: For the parent or the child?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: I would say for the parent.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: What would you what would be your advice to a parent?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I would say, first of all, in that moment, you have to be willing to have tough conversations.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and having that tough conversation is usually has to be based around making the child understand that this is what life is going to present to you.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like when something gets tough to where you want to quit, you better understand that you're gonna have more than one moment like this throughout your entire life.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if you quit, you are setting a tone for the level of resilience that you have, for your aspect of competitiveness, not only in sports, but in the workplace.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Or in a drama class when you really want to roll, but you have to outperform someone.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, these tough moments are what build some of our future leaders and some of our next pro athletes.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I think the parents being able to have tough conversations in those moments, even when it's gonna be a very, very tough conversation, they have to behave.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think one of the worst things is that you know, parents will say, My child wants to give up football.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: And actually, they don't want to give up football, they just didn't want to play that particular Wednesday, and it's a misinterpretation all around, I think.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: I I think I'm a huge advocate for, first of all, as a child, you start what you finish, and the parent is the final decision maker on whether the kid wants to play.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not injured or sick and your team has a game, this is a great teaching moment about being dependable, about showing up when you don't feel like it, the element of consistency, working in a team, leadership capabilities.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: These are all teachable moments that parents should also acknowledge because sometimes the parent can be tired and say, okay, I didn't want to take you anyway, but you have to hold yourself accountable in that moment as well as the child.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: I love when we talk to people who've been athletes and have performed at very high levels, and the mindset is so different, and I just absolutely love it.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Always leaves me with sort of questions that I want to ask.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, our time is very short today.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: I have one last question to ask you, and it's a bit of a curved ball.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: We don't, we don't give any more preparation on this.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: If, and I know you had a tough upbringing, but if everything you knew now, you could go back and give one piece of advice to your eight-year-year-old self, what would that piece of advice be?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Just always have an open mind.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I feel like I've always given myself the best effort in some of the sports I've played and activities I've been a part of, but sometimes in American culture, we can be limited to just being a basketball player or just doing acting or dancing.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: But be willing to speak different languages at that age and be willing to interact with people from different cultures and different neighborhoods because living in a place like here, uh, you see it so seamlessly that people from different cultures just get along and love each other.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's something that I could have learned at an earlier stage of my life and it and it'd been very beneficial.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Brilliant.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for joining us today, Jales Ferguson.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, obviously, you are a mentor, a coach, an elite athlete, and somebody that, you know, if you've got a child that needs support with resilience, with mindset, absolutely perfect to get in touch with you.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you for having me.