My Journey

I have been thinking a lot about my past and how I have gotten to where I am. I decided to put it all into a short blog post. In 2004, I moved to NH and I had never played organized basketball. When I was in 3rd grade, I played for our little league but still had not worked at all on basketball. I was pretty good as a 3rd and 4th grades and ended up in the major league one year earlier than everyone else. In 6th grade I tried out for for our travel team and made it. I wasn't confident at all and didn't play very well. In 7th grade, I started for our Junior High team. Once again, I wasn't confident in my ability to play or lead the team. Our team wasn't successful and only one 4 games out of 15. We lost by almost 20 in the first round of the Farmington Tournament. That Summer I committed to working every day. I didn't know how to practice and what to do during practices but my coach gave me a workout to do daily and I committed to doing it for a while. After a while I stopped doing it and stopped working to achieve my dream to play College ball. In 8th grade, I started once again for my Junior High team and had a successful season. My coach motivated me to become great. We ended our season with a great record of 11-2. We went into the Farmington Tournament confident that we going to win it all. The first game we played was against a great team with a great three point shooter. I played defense on him and only allowed him to score 7 points. We ended up losing by 1 point and were very disapointed. That day was the day that I decided to put my full effort into becoming great. That Summer I tried out for a nearby AAU team and was cut. Instead of allowing this to make me discouraged, I used it to motivate me. Every time I practiced, I was thinking about being cut and how I never wanted to have that feeling again. I decided to try out for my school AAU team and started and played almost the whole game. I was the leading scorer and Assist but the team wasn't good and we only won 1 game. I also went to 5-Star Basketball Camp and Point Guard College. They were both a great camp and I won the 6th man award at 5-Star. During my freshman year, I wanted to play Varsity Basketball as a Freshman. I was told by my friends that I wouldn't be able to because I am only 5'6". During the pre-season, I trained at a clinic called Integrity Hoops. The founder of IH was a great trainer. I learned a lot from that clinic and am now good friends with the trainer. I still worked as hard as I could and was rewarded by being a starter on the Varsity team. My teammates were not dedicated and our team went 2-17. This Summer, I am going to work harder than I ever have. I want to lead Farmington to a great season. I am attending PGC again and training with a few personal trainers. I am also attending IH again for an off-season clinic. My goal is still to play College ball and I am willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal.

2 is better than 1

Before I went to Point Guard College (now known as PGC: A Basketball University), I thought that I could get through n my own. I thought that I didn't need anyone to help me. At PGC they taught us to work with each other to become great. They taught us that we couldn't get by on our own ability, but that we had to rely on others to help us. I came home from PGC and was still trying to get by on my own. Now, the best thing about PGC in my opinion, is that you get to come home with a notebook full of notes. A few months ago, I was going through my notes and found one paper on teamwork. I read through it and saw one section that talked about working together with others. I wrote that I couldn't get by by myself. I decided that I was going to see how true this was. I called up some friends to work with me a few days a week and so far it has been very successful. They provide a harder challenge when I am driving to the hoop or shooting. I also help them. I think that together, we can reach our goals of playing in college. I am so glad that I read that paper of notes that I took from PGC.

Assets

These few assets are, in my opinion, what everyone needs in basketball and in life.

1. Can't be one dimiensional

Basketball: You have to be able to drive both ways with the same confidence.

Life: When an obstacle hits, you have to be able to go in any direction to get around them.

2. Gotta be a student of the game

Basketball: You have to constantly be searching for new things to learn about basketball.

Life: You have to be open to new experiences in order to be successful.

3. Get Comfortable with being uncomfortable

Basketball: In order to get better you have to constantly uncomfortable when you are practicing

Life: life is never gonna be comfortable. You are going to have to get around obstacles that come your way.

Insanity

Websters dictionary defines insanity as "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. This is a great teaching point because a lot of us do this without knowing. In basketball, if you practice doing lay-ups for hours a day, your only going to get better at lay-ups. No matter how much you think that your going to be improving your three point shooting while shooting lay-ups, it won't happen. The same thing goes for life. If you are constantly staying in your confort zone and only doing things that are comfortable with you, you can't expect to be doing gigantic things for the word. If you do, then you are insane! Don't stay in the same place. If something isn't working, then you have to make a change. It sounds simple but so many people don't do it.

Don't believe in Failure

The only way you can fail at something is if you stop moving towards it. Micah lancaster says it great... "Failure is choosing to stop. That's why I keep moving." This is so true because so many people in this age quit at something if they don't get it right away. Never stop moving towards your destination or else you will fail. That is the only way you can fail.

Excuses

I just read a quote a few minutes ago and thought that it was great and that I had to blog about it.
The best excuse is the one that is never made
That is such a great quote because so many of us do it. We all make excuses to not do what we need to do to get better. Some excuses even seem good. A few weeks ago, my family came up from Pennsylvania for a visit. They only visit us about 2 times a year. I was about to go train when a little thought came in my head. "You don't have to train. Your family is here and you can hang out with them." Regrettingly I stayed and hung out. Now at the moment I was thinking that this was a very good excuse and I didn't really care about the consequences. Now, as I think back, I want to kick myself in the butt because it was an excuse. Excuses, even if they seem like a good one, are always just going to hinder you. I have decided to make a commitment to try to stay away from excuses. I may slip a few times but i'm going to push myself to train instead of relaxing.

I'm Possible

Sometimes we let other people make the decision of who and what we are going to be. We let them make the decisions of what we are going to do. Micah Lancaster in the video, could have let everyone just tell him that he wasn't going anywhere and if he had listened to them, he probably if not definitely would not have made it to college. We as athletes and people cannot let anyone tell us what we can or cannot be. If we do, we will settle for that and not live up to the full potential that God has for us.

Game Speed

For basketball, we all need to practice at game speed. Game speed is doing everything you do at the speed of which we would do in the game This is very important because the game isn't going to slow down for us so we have to be speed up. How do we practice at game speed? Sprint after your rebound and if you miss, take it straight up and put it in. This is just one way to do it. This will also work out game situation at the same time. It's time for everyone to be prepared for the season. As the NBA strength and conditioning coach, Alan Stein, would say it, "Are you waiting for the season to start, or are you preparing for it?"

Setting Standards

What are standards? In my opinion a standard is a point where you will not go to. If I have set a standard for myself that I will not smoke because it's unhealthy, I will probably hold myself to it. Standards are very important to living a successful life.
You always want to set high standards in case you don't fulfill them. If you have a high standard and you fail to keep it, you will be better off than failing to keep a low standard.
The length of a basketball court is 94 feet. The width is is 50 feet. A good player will play with his own dimensions. A good rule for any basketball player is to play on and 88x44 ft court. That means you would have to have your own imaginary lines 3 feet in from the real out of bounds lines. By doing this, you will have less of a chance to go out of bounds. The same thing goes for setting standards. Never go as close as you can to your standards because sometime you may accidently "step out of bounds".

intangibles

Intangibles are things that cannot be taught. It's diving on the floor for loose balls or make a key steal on defense. Doing things that are intangible sounds hard but if you are hustling all the time and really want it, you can get these intangibles. They may not be the most remembered play of the game or even be remembered at all but if you get these intangibles, you have a good chance of winning. Work as hard as you can every game and try to get those intangibles.