🏀 Tips on getting the most out of your teams
Welcome to the 253 new readers of The Basketball Academy.
This is the day you become a better player or coach.
Today’s Basketball Academy takes 3 minutes and 26 seconds to read.
Here’s what we’re serving up:
🏀 #1 - Best thing we read 📚
🏀 #2 - Favorite Action 🎥
🏀 #3 - Growth > Outcome 💭
LET’S DIVE IN ⬇️
The 4 Agreements 📚
Written by Don Miguel Ruiz is a MUST-read. To break it down, we gave you what they are. We added some questions you should ask yourself and your team:
Be impeccable with your word - what’s something you’re lying about to yourself?
Don’t make assumptions - what’s something you assume?
Don’t take things personally - what’s something you take personally?
Do your best - what’s something you want to be at your best with?
Must Add Action 🎥
Horns 🤘 Kickback Spain 🇪🇸
💥 Great way to create a middle-of-the-floor catch-and-shoot three!
Zanshin 💭
In the 1920's a German professor named Eugen Herrigel moved to Japan. He moved to teach philosophy in a city called Sendai.
To deepen his understanding of the culture, Herrigel began training in the Japanese art of Archery, being taught by legendary archer Awa Kenzo. Kenzo was convinced that beginners must master the fundamentals.
He took this to the EXTREME. For the first two years, Herrigel was only allowed to shoot at a roll of straw just 7 feet away.
When he was finally able to shoot at more distant targets, Herrigel's performance was terrible. Herrigel stated that the problem must be "poor aim."
Kenzo replied it was not whether one eimed, but how one approached the task that determined the outcome. Herrigel replied "Then you ought to be able to hit it blindfolded."
Kenzo replied "Come see me this evening,"
That night, Herrigel returned to the courtyard practice hall. Kenzo walked to the target hidden in the dark, did his normal routine, drew the bow tight and released the 1st arrow in the darkness.
Immediately, Kenzo drew a 2nd arrow and fired it into the night,
Herrigel wrote in his book Zen in the Art of Archery "the first arrow was lodged full in the middle of the (target), while the second had splintered the butt of the first arrow."
A double bullseye.
"Everything is aiming" feet placement, how you hold the bow, the way you breathe during the release.
This complete awareness of the body and mind in relation to the goal is known as zanshin.
Zanshin is a word commonly used throughout Japanese martial arts to refer to "Relaxed Alertness." Literally means the mind with no remainder. An effortless vigilance.
On a deeper level zanshin is choosing to live your life intentionally and acting with purpose rather than mindlessly falling victim to what happens.
"When the battle is won, tighten your helmet."
The battle doesn't end when you win a game. It ends when you consider yourself a finished product, when you lose the intensity to continuously improve.
Source (jamesclear.com)
The point is not to worry about hitting the target. The point is to fall in love with the boredom of doing the work & embrace each piece of the process. The point is to take that moment of zanshin, that moment of complete awareness and focus, and carry it with you everywhere in life.
