Basketball helps Javon make a point...

Yes, It's football season, but today we are talking basketball, kind of.

Hey everyone! This past week, recurring themes brought me back to a particular season of my life, so I thought I should simply write about that.

Many of you may already know that basketball has been a big part of my life and a great joy to me. I fell in love with basketball watching the Chicago Bulls of the 90s, played basketball competitively from middle school through college, and did player development for college and high school athletes from grad school until about 5 years ago. Recently, it has been that last season in my “basketball life” that has drawn parallels to my current professional life.

One of the things that I have been PASSIONATE about is teaching the game of basketball. One of the best experiences that I have lived time and time again has been witnessing a player take “the jump” and go from one level of player to another as a result of their hard work. For the nearly 10 years that I dabbled in player development, I have helped dozens of high school athletes take “the jump” to the next level of play whether that was from role player to starter or from high school athlete to college athlete. As I thought about my time working with those players, I remembered that there were two lessons that I and other coaches/trainers would teach pretty early.

Lesson #1: Get to know and love your strengths. Spend as much time “strengthening your strengths” as you spend addressing your weaknesses.

Practically every experienced basketball player that I have ever worked with who desires to take the jump from “really good” to “elite” knows areas where they need to improve. They have watched their tape, have seen where their games break down, and have obsessed over why they can’t shoot consistently from further away. During our first session together, I could easily get a full list from them of things that they would like to improve. However, when asked to tell me why they were already good and have gotten as far as they have as a basketball player, most struggle to answer correctly or with conviction. One of the first things we would have to teach athletes is to know why they had success, and why they had an advantage over other comparable players. Although I knew that we would spend plenty of time addressing the areas in their game where they needed to improve, it was my job to convince them that there would be a significant return on the investment of capitalizing and sharpening the areas that made them uniquely great.

As it is on the basketball court, so it is in our own professional (& spiritual) lives. It is most likely that we all can go on and on about the areas that we need to improve but when asked about our areas of proficiency, we struggle. The first step is to do some introspective work on identifying, in a very specific way, the areas which we are proficient. If you are having trouble with this, take the initiative of asking a friend, family member, or coworker that you trust. Let us begin by claiming and falling in love (again?) with the unique way that God created us. From that point, our task is to spend some time further developing those exceptional gifts and skills that probably come most naturally to us and make us who we are. Remember, talents were given to be stewarded well and multiplied.

Lesson #2: Elite players keep track. It is hard to improve without targets, disciplines, and structure.

I’ll give you two basketball players. One goes to the gym to practice shooting and shoots from various (random) spots on the floor for 2 hours, then leaves. The second goes to the gym to practice shooting from pre-determined spots until he has made 300 shots total, then leaves. Only one of them is truly on track to become a better shooter and it is not the first guy even though he invested 2 hours of time into shooting in the gym. When following up with the first player to get feedback on his shooting, he wouldn’t be able to tell me why he shot from the places he did on the court and the best of his feedback could only be whether he “felt” like it was a good shooting day or not. The second player could tell me why he chose the places he did to shoot from, is more likely to know the percentage of shots he made based on how long it took him to finish as well as other valuable information that would help him to improve the next time. Great players know that development and peak performance are not random occurrences, they are obtained through intentionality in the preparation process. It may not always be the most comfortable or initially reassuring to keep track of progress, but it makes the difference in accomplishing a goal and celebrating the result with a proper perspective.

Often, as leaders, we buck against the notion of accountability, when at its best it drives empowerment and not micro-management. To be consistent in establishing targets, disciplines, and structure is to only reinforce your (and everyone else’s) trust in the final results. Imagine knowing that you attained a goal or great performance not due to luck or everything randomly happening the right way, but through the assurance that you had intentional and measured progress towards a pre-determined goal. Biblically, we see precedent in the Gospels. How would we know the insane significance of Jesus feeding a group of people with fish and bread if we never knew that there were 5,000 men (not including the women and children present)? How would the shepherd know to leave the 99 sheep to find the 1 that was missing if he didn’t regularly count the sheep to see if 100 were with him? Targets, discipline, and structure alone cannot achieve what you are looking to achieve, but they do pave the road that good fortune travels on.

I hope that this has been helpful to you.

Have a wonderful day, and may you accept and experience God’s great love for you!

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