What You Practice...

What you practice every day, becomes what you do, and who you are.  So what are you practicing?  I would like to think I practice having real and meaningful conversations with the people around me, and trying to do something everyday that benefits someone else.  And I would like to think that most days I do a pretty good job at that.  But I also practice being angry in the car, and having no tolerance for the drivers around me.  I practice staying up way to late, thus making me tired the next day, and in general, that contributes to me not having the sustainable energy I need to accomplish all the things I wish I could.  

When it comes to basketball, what are you practicing?

Do you find yourself saying things like: "I am going to lock you up on D"
or "I am about to yam on you, you can't stop me"  "coach I'm a shooter now" or my favorite " ball is life." I hear these kind of statements all the time, in gym class, on the playground, or in the hallway at school.  I see them tweeted and tatted, doodled on notebooks, and graffitti'd on desks and lockers all the time. 

My question is, when you say "I am going to lock you up on D" and then play, are you giving up layups?  Do you understand how to move your feet and use your strength to force your opponent into a place he wants to stay away from?  Are you willing to take a charge or give the hard/clean foul, and yet still commit to closing out on the jumper? Or do you reach for the cheap steal, hedge the lane for a highlight block, give up the and-one, or forget to box-out and get caught looking up as the shooter goes around you for the put-back?

Do you love to take a running start after practice, or when the coach blows the whistle for a drink, and backrim one-foot, two dribble dunk attempts from the right wing in a row over and over before catching one? Or, did you put in 90 minutes a day, on your own, training hard at times when no one else is awake yet, and catch your first dunk in scrimmages, cutting to the basket with two defenders around you, off two feet, with two hands, and just get back in line for the next set.  Has everyone heard about the putback slam you got on the 9-1/2 foot rim bent down in the front in summer league?  Or did you drop step bang in the second half of your first league game because you were pissed that the guy you were guarding in the first half hit a lucky step back and was talking junk about it?

What about when you announce to the gym that "coach I'm a shooter now" then proceed to miss your next 4 threes, short, right, long, then left, before finally getting a line-drive to bounce front rim, back rim, backboard, and through?  If you are a shooter, you know, and everyone else around you knows, and it doesn't matter if you've just run a hundred gassers, done a whole morning worth of push-ups and defensive slides, or a longer, quicker, stronger guy is guarding you, the next one is always going in.  You don't need to say anything, just sprint back and point to the guy who got you the ball.  

Is #ballislife your go-to catchphrase?  Did you just stand in line for 26 hours to drop $249 on the pumpkin-wheat foamposites?  Did you roll into the first day of try-outs with attitude glasses, huge crystal studs in each ear, headbands, wristbands, oversized jumpman shorts, a kyrie jersey turnt backwards, pumkin foams untied, beats on your neck, double elite socks, three necklaces, and an I love boobies bracelet?  Then miss your first two left-handed layups?  Or do you sell out on every sprint, chasedown, shell-drill-rotation, and defensive slide, then still have enough left to quietly dominate the one-on-one, to five-on-five games at the end of practice?  All because you did twice as many sets every day stretching back to the end of last season.  

With about 6 weeks remaining until HS tryouts, there is still time to change the things you practice, that become who you are.  If some of the things in this blog make you uncomfortable, good.  It's a signal to make what you say the same as what you do.  If you are interested in reading more, here's an article I just finished reading that set me off on this rant. 

Kobe works harder than Jordan did.

Be sure to follow the link at the bottom of the Jackson interview to read the full article on Kobe, and read all three pages of that.

Also check out these two Jeter items:

Jeter's Gatorade Commercial

Jeter sportsman of the year

The commercial speaks for itself, but pay close attention to what Billy Beane says about Jeter in the article, I think this is exactly how a champion thinks.

Kobe does not practice shooting jump shots, he practices making jump shots.
Jeter does not practice baseball, he practices intelligence, effort, and humility.

What do you practice?

-Coach Crookes