Welcome to the off-season, We’ve got work to do.

Welcome to the off-season. We’ve got work to do.

A good off season is lonely and full of pain and struggle. It will be painful to push through the lonely grind, it will be painful to say no and make tough decisions and it will hurt turning your weaknesses into strengths.

If you want to reach your goals, you have to fall in love with the pain. Embrace the pain, it will drive you. If you want it bad enough the pain will become your fuel.

Here is my blueprint for you to have a truly successful off-season of growth and achieving your goals next season.

6 STEPS TO PREPARE YOU FOR BATTLE. THE OFF-SEASON GRIND IS A DAILY BATTLE YOU MUST FIGHT OVER AND OVER AGAIN. YOUR PAIN IS YOUR FUEL.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Right after the season, its very important that you sit down with your coach and get a detailed analysis from him or her as to where you are as a player, what you did well this year and what you should be working on specifically to better fit their system.

You must be mentally tough enough to accept the criticism positively and use it to create your plan for the off-season. You must be coachable, you must want to be coached.

Create a detailed list of your strengths and weaknesses.

Study in detail the game film from your best game and your worst game.

List all the details, traits and characteristics you saw in your best performance. Study your body language, your attitude and the way you interacted with your teammates and coach. Then, do the same for your worst performance.

List the strengths and weaknesses you have as a leader off court and do the same for your on court leadership skills.

Take all the info and create a set of goals you want to achieve specifically during the summer and next season as an individual player and as a teammate. The key is to create a specific plan to get you directly to where you need to be.

Time

Time is everything in the off-season. The way you spend your time on and off the court will be the key to your success and growth.

It’s not about the hours and it’s not about the minutes, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE SECONDS. You cannot waste a single second. Every second effects your future, every rep, every action and every-thought you have during the off-season will have a direct impact on the way you play next season.

Wake up at the same time every day. Go to bed at the right time every night. Build a routine, never waste a second sleeping in and never waste time up late at night doing nothing.

Get up early, be productive and build a routine that will carry you right into the season.

If you are playing pick up, you must spend every second guarding the best player at your position.

You must always play against better competition. Playing VS players who do not challenge you is a waste of time. Playing VS players who are not better than the competition you will face in season is a waste of time.

While training and working out, every second counts. There should be no walking in between reps, no standing still waiting for the next rep, no long water breaks and no talking during your workout. If you are not 100% focused in tune with your body and completely in the moment on the specific rep you are wasting time.

Every second, every rep, every possession is crucial.

Compete

Every single workout has to be centred around competition. You must create pressure and create an atmosphere of doing what ever it takes to win each and every drill of every workout during the off-season.

Train with someone who is better than you and compete. Work to shoot the ball better than him. Run faster than him. Lift more than him. Stop him from scoring. Find a better player and compete every chance you get.

Compete against the clock. Time your drills, record your score and compete vs the clock.

Compete against the score board. Beat your last score every chance you get. Compete vs yourself and your training partner every workout.

Compete against the guy you can’t see. He is coming for you, compete against him every time you tie your shoes. He wants your dreams, he wants your opportunities he wants what you are working for.

Your desire and love for winning will fuel your workouts. Fall in love with winning and with every single rep you will start to build a necessary hatred for losing.

Hate to lose. Get mad when you lose. Cry when you lose. You must hate losing and hate your opponent more than you love winning, these healthy emotions will drive you.

 

Sacrifice

Your game is your bank account. Your game is money. Every time you make a sacrifice you are making a huge deposit into your bank account. Every time you become too weak and afraid to make the necessary sacrifice you end up spending huge chunks of your bank account.

Great workouts, practices and games are deposits into your bank account. The more you deposit in the off-season the more you will have to spend in season.

You can only go as far as the pain you can handle. You must say yes when others are saying no. You must do the opposite of what your friends are doing, you must stay in the gym when all others have gone home, and you must watch game film while every one else is watching movies.

When you know you have weaknesses and holes in your game, you must get with the right people and repair those holes before you play any more games.

You must come early and stay late when your teammates are hanging out.

You must sacrifice the parties, the video games, the late nights, the junk food, and the sugar.

If you can make these sacrifices you will have the best off season ever. You must go after this with everything you have, your heart and soul, you must make these sacrifices to get to where you want to be.

Video

Video tape your workouts, practices and games all off-season long. This is the key to understanding what you need to work on tomorrow. This is the secret to making sure you are getting better and not wasting time.

Do whatever it takes to get a camera. Save some money, sell some shoes borrow one from a friend. You must regularly study your game, body and mind during the off-season.

Watching yourself on tape regularly is the key to making sure you are on the right track and your plan is working. Without film, you can’t see if things are working.

If you’re in the gym working out by yourself, set up a tripod. Get your coach to set up a camera.

No excuses, make sure you are studying your progress. This is do or die, these are your dreams.

Plan

You must have a specific daily plan. Workout plan, nutrition plan and detailed schedule.

Your workout plan will come from your video, previous scores and coaching. You must build and plan your workouts based on exactly what needs work.

Continue to identify your strengths and plan to enhance them. Your strengths will become your identity and they must be continuously enhanced.

Write out your plan, your workouts in detail and your schedule for the next day every night before bed. It will keep you highly organized and prepared while building a razor sharp focus.

A plan gives you focus, preparation and toughness.

Great players are the ones who will push themselves to complete exhaustion every single workout. When you get to that point where everything hurts, you can’t even concentrate, your chest is on fire, you cant push any further — this is when you know there isn’t one more thing you could have done. This is when you are taking steps closer to your goals.

This off-season should be all about dedicating yourself to being the absolute best and settling for nothing less.

What are you willing to do this off-season to reach your dreams next season?

The easy way out will always be there. Do not give into the pain.

Your competition is on your heels…he’s in the gym right now.