Ep. 30 | Defence, 23 Hours and Talent (9 Episodes Recap)

Most young players think the secret is one more workout. We don’t. The biggest edge in youth basketball is what you do in the 23 hours you’re not practicing, and we break down exactly why that “invisible” time is where players are built.

We recap nine insights that kept repeating across recent guest conversations with coaches, trainers, and pro players. We talk recovery habits that actually move the needle: sleep, nutrition, stress management, relaxation, and the uncomfortable truth about phone addiction and screen time. If you’ve ever said “I don’t have time,” this will help you find it and use it.

From there we get blunt about earning minutes. Talent may get you in the gym, but defense and energy keep you on the floor. We dig into practical ways to become the player coaches trust right away: sprinting in transition, bringing bench energy, pressing full court, and training the physical tools that support great defense. We also cover why opportunities show up with no warning, why multi-sport builds better long-term athletes, and why mastering bodyweight control should come before chasing strength numbers.

We finish with two mindset multipliers: asking better questions to get pulled ahead, and inviting failure so you grow faster. Parents, we give you one simple line that protects the relationship and lowers pressure: “I love watching you play.” If this helps, subscribe, share it with a player or parent, and leave a review so more families can find Basketball Body and Mind.

Transcript

Quick Hitting Takeaways To Start

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Those are super important. Sleep, food, phone, uh, stress management, relaxation. This is where the players are built. Talent is only the entry point, but energy will keep you on the floor. Either way, even if you are on the floor, if you are on the bench, keep that energy high. For the parents, I would say, remember that one line. I love watching you play. That is it. This podcast is for youth basketball players, their parents, and the coaches who develop them. In every episode, we cover topics that determine your success. We talk basketball, body, and mind. I am Stan, strength and conditioning coach and physiotherapist, working with youth basketball athletes around the world. If you are serious about your development and you want to succeed in basketball, this podcast is for you. Let's get it.

Why A Nine-Guest Recap Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Basketball Body and Mind. Today, as always, we have another special episode, but why it is special this time? Because I am doing a recap out of the last nine episodes. And nine episodes, I'm not talking about my solo episodes, but nine episodes of um uh when I had a talk with other guests. So, as you remember, we had a Los Angeles Lakers trend coach, we had a private coach who worked uh also in NBA and who's working who has worked in EuroLeague, we had professional uh basketball player who is playing in um Greece right now. Like, we had many people. I'm not even mentioning some of the top trainers in the USA that we have talked about, but like it's lots of information, like head coaches. Like, I'm like looking at the notes, I'm like, I'm super happy that I uh got to talk to that many uh interesting people, and so that information would not get lost. I, with the help of AI, I took uh nine things that I believe are the most important uh things to remember from those episodes. And uh how do I define important is that that insight, that thing needed to repeat again. Like if somebody mentions, let's say if basketball player mentioned that, then I know that like maybe head coach mentioned that also, maybe then somebody else mentioned that also. So then is an insight because people who are not connected, I mean they're all basketball-related people, but they talking, they're talking about the same thing, and of course they have not kind of agreed to talk about that, but that's the reason uh it's important, and that's the reason why they are mentioning those uh things.

The 23 Hours That Build Players

SPEAKER_00 2:56

So let's get right into those insights, and insight number one is that 23 hours uh matter more than that one hour. So, what does it mean that one hour? Like it's maybe it's more, but uh you're training like one or two hours a day, maybe three hours a day, but then rest like 21 to 23 hours a day is super important, super important. And Tim DiFrancesco, uh Dimaskalk, uh Luca Sviller, they were all talking about these things, and uh of course, like you know, and I have mentioned it myself in the solo episodes about the sleep, about the food, uh, but like sleep, food, uh they are super, super important. And before that, actually, uh, if you have listened about the recovery, um, the episode where you can find the show notes, uh, the link to that in the show notes, I was talking also about the psychological well-being, uh, stress management and relaxation. So, definitely listen what it what it what those terms mean and how to work on that because I believe it goes together with uh uh sleep as like importance because if you are super stressed, no matter how well you ate, no matter how well you slept, uh you will feel off. So that's why I believe it is uh important. And uh, in other like other side of the coin, let's say why I believe it is super important, because we all focus about the training, we all focus about training for basketball, we all focus um training the body. Um but in order to be good at basketball or to be good at your body, even like to be good at your mind, you need to be like sleeping well consistently, you need to be feeding your uh body well because you are made of what you eat, so that is very important, and also uh what they were talking about, and we talked a lot with uh Tim DiFrancesco about that, about a phone addiction. And um, I have the challenge that like you need to check your screen time, and if you are spending more time on the screen rather than playing, your future is clear. And I'm not talking just like okay, if you're making a call or if you're studying YouTube video, uh, how to play better defense, let's say. Uh, so then of course it doesn't count. But look at the apps that you're using most often, and those would be uh ones that I'm I would add up and count, like Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and I always come back to this um kind of story that um I was watching one basketball uh game, like a youth level, and uh one of my clients also showed up to the same gym and he just sat down uh next to me and we were talking, and he said, Yeah, like yesterday I didn't have uh time to uh to do the training session. And I said, Uh do you mind if I will check your phone? He's like, No, it's fine. I said, open your phone and check your screen time. And he started to laugh, and uh he opened and he had four hours of TikTok on his uh phone last day. He said, seriously, uh and we just laughed and he said, like, it's all good, I'm not judging you. I just want to I just want you to be aware of where you are spending your uh most of the time. Because uh if you say that you don't have maybe you're right, because you're feeling that you don't have time, uh, but then you look at your screen and like, oh my god, three hours? That's a lot. That's a lot. So um, of course, uh last thing talking about the recovery, uh, also regardless of the level, regardless of the age, at least one day per week should be completely off. Resting, do whatever you want. Uh, no strength and conditioning, no um basketball, nothing basketball related. I mean, if you want to stretch, of course, stretch. If you want to foam roll, definitely do that. If you want to go for a walk, go and go and do that walking, be in the nature. Um, so these are the things that I really believe that the insight number one is one of the most important.

Earn Minutes With Defense And Energy

SPEAKER_00 7:43

And uh, I mean, every insight will be important because when I uh was going through the episodes, I said I'm like, there are so many things that I would like to continue talking, but let's go with the insight number two, and uh in order to earn minutes on the court, you need to go with the energy and defense. So this thing, um, again, uh George Dedas, uh Tim DiFrancesco, Lucas Viller, they all were talking about uh Mihai Raducanu, uh, they all were saying about the energy and defense. And uh you have to understand like if you are young and you are entering the let's say pro league, you're entering the pro level, you cannot expect to be offensive player, but you can really be good at defense, and many people, coaches, uh players, veteran players, everything, everyone will appreciate you being defensive player. You can score zero but be really good on defense, and uh you will be amazed how much of the offensive opportunities later it will create for you. But definitely start with defense if you want to earn more minutes, and if you cannot play defense because you're sitting on the bench, go up with the energy. I think George Detta said that uh if uh how he said something like uh that like energy, uh you can compensate your lack of some of the skills uh that you're lacking right now at that age because you were entering the pro level. He said that you can compensate with the energy and energy on the bench that you are shouting, you are supporting the team, but also energy on the court, hustle, like run, sprint, not run, sprint to the offense, sprint to the defense, like you don't require any skill uh that you would not have to be because you are already at that level, so you can run, so you don't require require any um skill just to sprint, you definitely can do that, and if you are sprinting on defense, that's even better. Maybe some veteran player uh was a little bit late and um he cannot go so fast on the defense, but you are the young one and you are sprinting as fast as you can, and you kind of uh foul the player or you on the offense or you uh kind of try to uh steal the ball or maybe you block the shot. Imagine how good uh the veteran player will feel that you kind of hustled instead of him and you saved the the team from two points or three points. So again, this is this is defense, so you definitely need to uh have this skill in your bag, not another kind of crossover uh skill, but this skill. And you don't need any talent for this, uh, just energy and defense, and uh some things that um because the player he's playing in Czech Republic, he was playing in the highest league, now he's playing in second league, and uh I was telling to him, like, you have to practice defense, and how you can do that is whenever whenever you're playing one-on-one, ask, like, can I defend like 20 times in a row? And then you go one time, you play on the offense, and again you play 20 times in a row of defense. So that could be one. Now I'm talking more about a defense one-on-one, not uh five-on-five tactical uh defense, but uh like you just need to practice more of the defense. If you will see that like physical tools are the limiting factor, such as um like uh speed and the first step and so on, you would need to like again. I will simplify as much as I can. Uh, so you get to uh it can be many things what influence that physical part of you not being able to make the first step and uh be strong and so on. But like if you want to work on defense, usually it will be more hip dominant and lateral speed uh or lateral type of movement. So hip dominant, like a deadlift, single-leg hip thrust, hip lift viation, hamstring curls, uh, and uh if we're talking about as I said, like lateral speed, so like any kind of like a lateral jumps, bounce, uh band-resisted uh things, um diagonal bounce, all of these exercises, but any any single leg exercise will give you more um like kind of benefits to work uh to improve your defense. And another thing, um, I don't remember with who exactly I was telling this that I would make kind of mandatory for myself if I was a young player coming up and I would like to earn more minutes, I would make mandatory for myself to full core press every single time, like in the practices, and then definitely in the games. If I would get time, uh any minutes to play, I would pick up the player from the first meter, and uh of course they will cross you and you will kind of lose, maybe you will fall and everyone will be laughing. But who cares? You get to you get minutes to play, that's the most important things, and those who are standing in the stands and like, oh, look at this, look at that, like who cares if you will care if you care about those people who are too afraid, or uh it can be afraid, or maybe they are not um uh consistent or they're not willing consistent enough or they're not willing to give their all effort into achieving their goals, who cares about those people? We care only about you achieving your goal. Your goal is to go pro. So if you care about those who cannot go pro, who are afraid, as I said, to take those steps, like you are not able to go pro because the the higher the level, like new level, new devil. So, what did this mean? Like, the higher you go, the more spectators will be, the more cameras will be, and if you will be afraid to kind of fail, uh fail meaning like do something stupid, shacting a fool. So if you will be uh afraid to get into those failures, you will not succeed. Find a way, be strong enough, focus on yourself, uh, be strong enough to kind of overcome these things and uh focus on yourself, on your goal, have that bigger goal in mind. Uh so okay, I'm I'm just went a little bit on the rant, but like pick up full core defense, and on the training sessions, you will be training yourself, you will show you will be training the defense, you will show to the coach that hey, I am capable of doing full court press. So, whenever you need somebody to defend, uh let's say to defend, or let's say to make the opponent's uh point guard or whichever player tyred, I'm here. You know that you can count on me. You saw how many times I did full court press, like I always give my best. And the funny thing is, the more you do, the better you get. So the more full court press you will do, not only the defense will improve, but overall conditioning, your skill recognition, you will know where the opponent will go because your body subconsciously or automatically will know what the opponent will do. So you will just get better and better and better, and like finally, like you're just playing because you're a great defender, and everyone just you need uh you need to be on the uh team just because you are a great defender, and uh guess what? You get more minutes, you get more also scoring opportunities, but you do not care about that right now because you're young, you're just working on the defense. That was your focus. Um, yes, I think like episode 15 or something, like uh Limonas Heglinskas. Uh, he was talking about um one player, I forgot who uh he was, but he was saying that at the young age he said, I will be I will be the best defender, I will be defending everyone so well, and I will be the best in Europe, and he's playing in uh EuroLeague uh right now. So box out every rebound, uh like work on these uh defensive type of activities, and uh you will definitely get your chance. But start with defense and energy.

Opportunities Arrive Without Warning

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Insight number three is that opportunities will come without any warning. Uh, it will not be like knocking on the door and like saying, Hey Stan, would you like to come uh maybe to play with us in a month or in two weeks? Um, yeah, let us know. No, it will be like this yo, you come today to the practice, and it's like maybe like men's or maybe it's A team, and you need to be ready. If you're not ready by the time like when you will get there, you will realize like OMG, um, I wanted to swear a little bit, but I'll say oh OMG, like I'm not ready for this level, and whose fault is that? Maybe you can say it's coaches, but like again, remember the Jacko Willink extreme ownership book. It's only on you. It's your fault that you are not ready. It's only your fault. You should have been ready, you should have trained harder, you should have trained smarter, you should have trained more, or maybe rested more, but you should have been ready because you have been thinking that I would like to go there, or I would I think that I will I am ready, and I think um like when I will get there, I will show everyone. You should be ready. Or let's say you are a young player who is not getting minutes, and you are complaining, either like 15 or 19, you're not getting minutes, is the same issue. You have to do the same things and come back to insight number two, energy and defense. But even if you're not training, you have to keep on working. Like George Detta said, Um, when he was um um in college in uh Greece, for two years he did not he barely got any minutes, but he kept on training body, kept on training skills. It's very good for him because he had people around him, coaches, to motivate and to push him. If you don't have them, yeah, I'm sorry, but this is your situation. I mean, if you need uh strength and conditioning coach, just tell me, I'll help you. But uh in general, like what will you do? Like, there's no like we cannot do anything. We can either uh find a way to train or we can quit. And we can say, Yeah, I cannot, I cannot do this because I don't have people around me. How bad do you want if you're not playing? Find a way to get better. Find a way. Because opportunities, as like it says, like, will come without warning. What if the uh player will get injured, or someone in the national team will get injured, or a coach needs a uh defensive player because you are great at defense, he saw. So they will just call you and say, Hey, come, uh, come to the practice today, usually it's like today or tomorrow. But um, yeah, like you need to be ready, find a way uh either yourself or to the coach. If you don't know, actually, it will be one of the things that uh I will be talking later, so maybe I'll not mention right

Multi-Sport Development Until Mid-Teens

SPEAKER_00 20:21

now. Uh, insight number four is maybe a little bit more for the coaches and parents, but uh you need to do multi-sport until you're like 14 or 16 years old. I would go like up to 16 years old. Of course, it's it's going to be super difficult because um you uh are going to face uh some challenges because maybe you your team is training five times a week and coach wants you to be there five times a week. Oh, that's a difficult question because uh you would need to find a way to uh minimum until 14 years old to do multiple sports. And it would be best if you would not play basketball when you were like seven, eight, nine years old, that you would do some other sports. Uh, football is that one that I see very often, somebody who's good at football, like soccer, uh they have really good footwork later, like a foot uh football coordination, like uh like we have a handball coordination, but then football is like a football coordination, is really good. So that footwork when the person when the person like does like a crossovers and so on, like where they step uh with the feet, it's uh really good. So even like Alvaro Cardenas, episode 21 or 22, uh Spain national team player uh at age 20, whatever, four or three, I don't know exactly how old is he. Uh he's really good at football. And when we were working together, like I I could not come up with a basketball drill that he was like a like a dribbling drill that he would not be able to do. Like like any kind of like a tennis ball drill, two ball handling, uh dribbling and uh uh doing some like uh wall drills and uh agility ladders plus basketballs, anything like at first he would be like, okay, that's difficult, but like within a minute, like not even a minute, like 30 seconds, and he's like, I got it. And uh I was amazed. He was one of the only probably person that was able to do whatever I asked. So, but he has done multiple sports. As you can uh listen to the podcast, uh, he is explaining his journey and how competitive he is, but it's not about the competitive competitiveness right now. Uh, Bo De Maskalk, Tim DiFrancesco, Chris Ryan, episode 29. He was also they are all talking about that, and uh, we need to find a way to incorporate other sports, and uh it's good for the uh injury risk of reduction uh type of uh kind of side, let's say, because uh when you play basketball, you are repeating certain movements, and usually it's certain angles because you're only training one way, and you might not maybe notice, but I mean, of course, but like you will be stopping more with one side, uh, you will be turning more to one side, of course. You will be shooting mostly with one hand, like everything is like one side dominant. But if you go, let's say from basketball to football to track and field, if you go to uh other sports, you will do different movements, you will be using different angles, your body will be exposed to different environments and situations. So, hopefully, the processing um speed, like a nervous system speed, will be faster. You will be able to uh decide what is the good, let's say, decision and what is the right movement to do in that situation faster and with the injury risk of reduction uh risk of reduction is that when you are doing same movements, same angles uh over and over year after year, uh they get just too much of stress. So the idea behind is that you do different movements and different uh degrees, so that let's say um let's call it joint angles and uh those parts of the muscles and tendons and ligaments, they will be uh resting a little bit from those angles that you usually do. I mean, I'm not like like now I'm listening to myself and thinking how I am saying everything, and I'm saying really to the language of like sixth or eighth grader uh could understand. So sometimes I maybe simplify a little bit too much. But my idea is like I have the filter, I have been uh working and studying. Now I'm studying physiotherapy, about to about to finish, but being doing this around 12 maybe years, uh, so I have a quite good filter uh to kind of separate. Oh, it's more, it's 15 years. Uh so I have a good filter, so because you maybe don't have that filter, so you're using me as a filter that uh information which is useless and which is more important. So, as I said, do multi-sport until age of uh 16 if possible, if not until age of 14. Insight

Master Bodyweight Before Heavy Lifting

SPEAKER_00 25:49

number five, uh it's that you need to master your body weight before chasing any strength numbers. And when we are saying about master your body weight, I am talking more about youth levels and uh like mastering body weight because we don't need weights. I mean, I would use weights even like with uh someone who is six years old, and now you should be asking, what? How? Why? Aren't you afraid? But I would use weights for the different reason. I would give him or her like a one-kilogram dumbbell and or like a medicine bowl or something, let's say, like not always, but sometimes I would just use like an implement so he or she could play around with that implement or do the movements, and while holding they'll say the dumbbell or uh that uh medicine bowl overhead or like just doing different movements, but I would not be chasing the numbers, like if you did with two, if you did with one, go with two, if you did with two kilograms, go with three, and so on. No, I would just let him play around with that new um new new new kind of equipment because this is how we learn. And Luca was talking that he would go with the calisthenics. Uh Bo said that he teaches squats, lunges, uh hinges like a deadlift movement at the 13 and 14 because the kids they cannot control their own like a body, and uh no amount of strength training will um kind of strength training, meaning like adding extra more and more load will improve that. They need to expose themselves to different environments, different equipment, um, different uh kind of services. This is the idea behind, and I was telling in one of the episodes, like imagine that you uh this is for I'll just use for the kids. Uh imagine that you are on you're always use like a one phone, and then you get a tablet next time, like a little bit bigger phone, and uh whatever you will what you're used to type or how you used to type, it was easy for you, but now you need to type the same thing, but the tablet is bigger, and it's going to be much more difficult for you. Same with the kid, you are growing, you are changing. So, whatever was easy for you, like catching a ball, throwing a ball, uh doing a push-up or lunch, was easy for you because you were used to do at a certain uh height, at a certain you know, like uh range of motion, but you grew. You like you grew, some people grew like 10 centimeters, like four inches in a summer. So, definitely all the same things that were uh easy for you before will be difficult right now. So we need to expose to different environments, as I said, just to learn uh how to master that kind of body weight. Um, why, for example, sometimes I would not use body weight if the person is super weak, uh in that circumstance. But if you are doing sports, so probably you would not be in that category. But in some cases, if the person is very very weak, I probably would go with some little bit of weights because we could raise the uh strength level a little bit more up, even though he has zero experience, and then we could go to the body weight exercises, and then from those bodyweight exercises, we could again uh go back to the uh strength and so on. So, in some cases, I believe that doing a little bit of uh machines or a little bit of um weights could be even beneficial, even the person has zero experience uh in the weight room. So, what could be the exercises? I mentioned a few, but like a bodyweight exercise, like a bodyweight squat, just regular squat. If it's easy, grab a backpack, put it on uh the front of your shoulders, or go with the tempo, like three seconds down, three seconds up, uh, or stand in like a sing um uh split stance position. You can those things, you can go the next exercise like a single leg deadlift. Uh, you can go push-ups, definitely include some pull-ups. Um, and then after all of these are mastered, like lunges, step ups, I mean lots of exercises, but then when you master a dose and you are good, take an implement, take a basketball, take a medicine ball, take a light dumbbell, take a band, uh, whatever, just play around and um train that way, and later you will be able to add a little bit of strength.

Deceleration And Landing Save Careers

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Uh, insight number six, super important, is deceleration and landing, is where careers are saved. And why saved? Because not always, like Achilles ruptures will usually happen more on the acceleration, but uh ankle sprains, knee injuries, very often, like mostly, it will happen in decelerations and landings. We need to find a way for our muscles to fire fast, and in deceleration, they really need to fast uh react fast. Like when you are landing on let's say from the box on single leg, you need to have a great uh timing of your glutes, of your quads, hamstrings, uh tibialis anterior anterior, all these muscles, or like when changing direction, all these muscles they need to fire fast, and uh then they need to kind of rebound because after you decelerate, maybe you reaccelerate. So it's super important. And um Chris Ryan made a point that a tall athlete usually can jump uh very like a much higher, but when they need to stick the landing, it's difficult, it's difficult. So, uh, like we were talking, that one of the ways to measure your deceleration could be just you doing a long jump, like a bro jump, and of two legs, starting of two legs, and you just jump as far as you can, but you see if you can decelerate from the uh distance that you jumped. So, for example, if I'm standing on two legs and I jumped forward two meters, but I bear I cannot decelerate, I cannot nicely stick the landing on two legs. My acceleration is uh like on a let's call it better than deceleration. I need to work on deceleration, so then maybe I do 180, not so big jump, but then my landing is perfect. So I'm thinking, okay, I need to work more on the deceleration, and deceleration could be um exercises uh such as you would be stepping off the box, start with a smaller box, or you're stepping um with a lunge, like making a lunge forward or lunch to the side. Uh you can attach the band that would be pulling you forward while you're making a forward lunge or pulling you to the side uh while you are uh stepping to the side. It can be making any kind of jumps, uh either forward, uh vertical, or lateral, uh, and you are sticking the landing, or you can do sometimes we do in the online training that we do, let's say three jumps or five jumps in a row, let's say vertical jumps, and on the last one, I want you to stick the landing. So I want to see that you're not only able to do five jumps in a row, but you still have a great control, and after last jump, you stick the landing. I took this from the uh uh one coach, Mike called Mike Boyle, and I'm using it until this day. Last jump, stick the landing, show me that you're able to control. So, as I said previously, most of the those knees and uh uh ankle sprains, but knee injuries like ACLs, they will be usually in the deceleration or landing phases that they happen, and it's super common. Unfortunately, currently I have two uh people online working with the ACL injuries, uh, but um yes, like sometimes we cannot prevent that because it's a contact injury as the passable uh is a contact sport, so some things we are not able to kind of minimize the risk. But if it was non-contact, if you sprained your ankle on um kind of just changing direction, if you tore your ACL or some other, let's say ligament without contact, just making a step, maybe more likely yes than no, but maybe you could have prevented that with a great training program and consistent training program that would involve deceleration and landing skills.

Ask Better Questions Get Pulled Ahead

SPEAKER_00 35:19

Insight number seven is what I said that I will mention about that later, that the player who asks questions they will be pulled ahead. And what do I mean with that? It's not only me who agrees with that, but like Luca Sviller was saying, Mihai was saying about that, George Daddis was talking about that. That asking for not asking for a help. This is Luca said, not asking for a help is the biggest mistake young players can make. And uh Mihai said that the truth fears no questions. So what is important that we coaches, we really want you to succeed, we want you to succeed very much. Sometimes I even think that uh we coaches want you to succeed even more than yourself, and but why could it be? Because uh maybe like we have seen players who have succeeded, and we know what those players uh can achieve, and we see someone similar that they definitely have a chance and they're great, and we really want them to succeed. But this is the first time for you, you have never succeeded, you have never done this thing. So, probably that's why we want more for you than sometimes when than you want for yourself. But after the training session, like go to the strength coach, or whenever you have time to talk to the strength coach and ask, how can I improve my left hand? What could I do, you know, to make it more coordinated? Uh, maybe he will ask some questions, or you can say, Hey, how can I be more um kind of being able to play uh lower, be more strong, or be stronger on the lower position. Sometimes I feel like everyone is pushing me out and uh out of balance, and I'm not able to do that, like finish, let's say, with a contact, like whatever the question is, or you can go to the assistant coach or head coach, depending on the level you're playing, and like ask, like, hey, I really want to improve my I don't know, defense. I really, of course, defense, uh, because that's what we starting from. But maybe I want to improve my skills, I want to improve my shooting, I want to improve my shooting percentage, shooting technique, whatever. When you ask questions, coach will be, okay, interesting. I want to help this kid more because he is looking for information, he's looking the ways uh to um kind of improve, and it's easier for us to coach uh for coaches to work when we know that the person is willing to take that um advice, and it's easier to motivate, like we don't have to kind of push the player to uh do something. Player comes by himself, so it's we're happier. We are like we are happy to to help and to um to to improve and to help that uh player to get what you really really want. So that would be probably getting more minutes, being a better basketball player, earning more minutes, playing at a higher level, and so on. So encourage, encourage uh, if your parent, encourage your kids to ask more questions, and uh if you are a kid, I encourage you ask more questions, ask, ask, ask. This is how you will uh find uh the really feel your

Invite Failure To Grow Faster

SPEAKER_00 39:12

potential. This is what I would say, and in order to kind of find your real potential, you will definitely uh have some failures, and we talked fail failures a little bit before, but inside number eight is invite failure, do not fear it, and uh Tim DiFrancesco, Alvaro Cardanas, Mihai Raducanu, they all were talking about this um amazing episodes, amazing episodes. Uh, and uh the kid who is willing to look bad, as I said, in practices is the one who will get good in the games. That's the truth. Like the more you miss, the more you will make. The more shots you will miss, the more you will make. Do you understand that? The more kind of mistakes, failures you will get, you will kind of I'll say achieve, not even using quotes, but the more failures you will achieve, the better you will get. Like the kid who is learning to uh how to walk. Like they felt like they fall down, they stand up, they fall down, they stand up, and at some point they're just falling less and less and less, then they start to run, they're falling less and less. I mean, they still fall sometimes, but it's less and less, and then eventually, like we get older a few years later, like the kid is doing everything, even jumping and not falling. So that's the same for you, with whatever skill you decide to uh start improving, shooting, defense, offense, whatever you decide, but do not be afraid. And uh Tim said that the Kobe had no fear of missing, he was expecting that it will happen, and uh Alvaro had a rule uh that he said I'm not negotiating with myself before the shot. Like just just do. You have done thousands of shots, hopefully, uh in the pr in the game, in the practice. So you definitely have a deserter like a right, you have a right to make that shot. But uh, as I said, start with defense. Don't think that you were shooting when you were 15, 16, 17, 18, and then you go to pro and you're like, I have a right. I was four years uh doing those shots. If you have a right to shoot, uh coach will tell you, trust me, coach will tell you, but uh invite that failure. Don't be afraid that the best player in the team will cross you over, you have the kind of quote unquote ankle breaker, and uh your career is over. No, stand up and pick him up again, full court. Next play, next play. So this would be that uh it's I mean it's difficult right now, and um it was uh George Deddes was talking about that that if uh you like somebody had a poster or somebody did a crazy move and then uh you know like it was recorded, and then you might be kind of quote unquote now failure around the world, but it doesn't mean that you are a failure. Who knows? What if you will achieve your goal? What if you will become one of the greats? And then the same failure will be used in your advantage, they will be saying, Oh my god, look at him, he has uh this kind of failure, but now he's like a top, everyone should learn uh from this kid because despite of the failure, he was able to succeed. And uh question to you why not you? Why not you to learn? Why not you to succeed? Invite the failure, expect those failure failures, do not fear

Parents Support First Not Coach

SPEAKER_00 43:35

it. And uh insight number eight is for parents only it's important because you need to be a parent, don't be a coach. You're a parent first. I don't think you're a coach is even second or third or fourth. You're a parent. So uh Well it might break your um it might break your kids. I mean uh who am I to say uh my kid is only a few months old so I cannot uh say that but since George Jedi's uh Tim DiFrancesco uh Body Mascal, they were all talking about uh this and it does like pressuring the kid will not raise the standards, but it will raise their anxiety, anxiety, it will raise their stress level, they will not be performing so well in the court. And uh yes, like every every coach that I talked uh uh with, they were talking about this. And uh don't be the person, uh don't be the parent who is yelling to the referees, who is uh yelling to the coaches from the stands, uh who is uh I think in USA, like in Lithuania, I don't think we have a word uh for that, but uh that uh drive back home after the game is usually where lots of coaching happens from the parents, but it should not be this way. You should be uh maybe asking open questions if you really want to talk about that. Maybe you don't even need to talk about that. Maybe kid if kid will bring up the game and situation and uh and and and uh kind of questions, ideas about like what has happened, stay away from the kind of uh not judging, but let's say giving your opinions, but ask more questions, ask open open-ended questions to the kid if he wants to talk about that. And how can you know if he wants to talk about that? If he starts talking about that himself or herself, and then you just continue asking questions, find the way to uh not to put your opinion, not to put, I mean, if he would ask, hey, but what do you think? What do you think I could have done better? And uh it's a tricky question. I don't know if sometimes they really want to know uh what they could have done better. Maybe they're just asking if they want if they are loved, even though they are not performing that well. So it's very important. And after I believe after each game, uh parents, I definitely will do that if uh my kid will decide to do some sports. Uh, but I will say one line I'll just say I love watching you play. Because that's I believe I will I will really do that. If I get to see uh my son playing, I really will say, I love watching you play. There is nothing else that we could say, and why I believe it's important because we are praising the uh the playing, the effort. We're praising the thing that I want to instill that the person would continue doing, play the game, it's basketball game, football game, right? As a Steve Um Kerr uh said, uh like he had those um kind of I don't know how to say it rules for basketball, and one of them, like just have fun, and uh Steph Carvey took it too hard. When he plays basketball, he really plays. What if that is one of the reasons, and I believe it is one of the reasons why he is such a great player. He has fun, he has fun in practices, he has fun in uh games, he makes it makes it fun. And uh there was I don't remember exactly, but Step Carvey missed like uh two free throws, I think, or three, uh in two kind of he got fouled two times, and I think he missed two, and then he missed, I think, another one, and on before the fourth shot, he was smiling. He has missed already three in a row, I believe it was this story. And uh, after the game, the interviewer asked, like, why were you smiling? And he said, I have never missed four in a row, but he made it, so uh yeah, like you know, having fun of this like failure, and he's just laughing. I'm not saying like you're missing and you're laughing, ha ha ha, but like uh have fun, you know. So, yes, and uh to come back to the inside number nine, like don't yell, don't yell to the referees, uh don't yell to the coaches. Yeah, let the coach coach, let the referee, referee. Um if your kid uh would quit sport tomorrow, you would still have your kid because uh the relationship would still be there. I would not want you to kind of lose relationship with the kid if he quits sports or she quits sports. So that would be insight number nine be a parent, not a coach.

Three Takeaways And Share Request

SPEAKER_00 49:42

So to summarize as always three key takeaways, very simple because we had just nine key takeaways. So three would be remember the 23 hours, those are super important sleep, food, phone, uh, stress management, relaxation. This is where the players are built, super important. Uh, then number two would be definitely earn your minutes with energy and defense. Uh, talent is only the entry point, but energy will keep you on the floor, either way. Even if you are on the floor, if you are on the bench, keep that energy high. And uh last one, probably I'll just go with the parents. Uh, because those two were with the um for the players, but for the parents, I would say remember that one line. I love watching you play. That is it. So, thank you very much for listening. If any of this insight was uh interesting for you and you saw the value of um them, definitely share this episode with a player or with a parent or with a coach who needs needs to hear is hear this. Uh, this is the best way to support us. But for now, keep training basketball, body and mind.