Three Mistakes to Avoid with Training

Here are three black holes of human behavior to avoid when trying to adopt a new training regime.

Mistake #1: Expecting Immediate Results

Over the past decade of training it’s been a common occurrence to witness folks quit right before they’re about to have a breakthrough with training, which as their coach and advocate is always a bummer.

Eventually, whatever small spark of motivation ignited them to do something different fizzled out and they reach a tipping point where the path forward perhaps felt too sore, too tired, or life got in the way again, and they weren’t motivated enough for themselves anymore.

They let themselves skip one day, which by the way is not a big deal, but then it became two, and then three, and then… ‘whatever, now is not the time and I’ll try again in 6 months’.

The tricky part of having a true breakthrough or habit stick is to not let yourself expect immediate (and we’re talking within one to three months) results or expect the pain of sacrificing the time to get easier. Habits take time to form, and if you were too sore or tired one day and skipped, don’t let that become a second time because it’s a reeeaallll slippery slope after that.

Aim to survive at least a month of consistent workout attendance, and your odds of making real change stick and getting results go way up.

Mistake #2: Letting Your Ego Lead You to Injury

I will humbly admit this has happened to me, and I will say, YOUR EGO IS STUPID. Literally, your ego does not have your best interests and is more like a small drunken leprechaun that eggs you on despite the potential cost of your actions.

Your ego will encourage you to do things you’re not quite ready for - like lift that weight even though your form is slightly compromised, or be too proud to apologize or admit you need help, or push through the pain of an already existing injury because “it’ll be fine” and your ego wants to do what everyone else is.

Remember, you are smart and your ego is dumb. Attempt to act in your best interests as often as possible, it’s only common sense and the key to self-preservation.

Mistake #3: Making Excuses or Complaining

“A positive attitude is not just forcing a smile through gritted teeth in the hopes of feeling better. It is something a lot more profound than that. When we adopt a positive attitude, we are using the power of our mind to remove thoughts and ideas that are no longer helping us to develop.”

— Unknown

In short, complaining and making excuses does not fall into this line of thinking. It’s an easy habit to allow to grab hold of us, but if we truly respect the power of the the mind and our thoughts, we’ll honor that this line of negative thinking will take us nowhere.

With love and respect behind these statements, I make willingly to no one and everyone including myself:

Your excuses aren’t helping you.

Your complaining is pushing yourself away from a greater version of you, and potentially pushing away people who you’d want in your circle who do work to think positively most of the time.

It’s no one’s job to cheerlead you constantly through life, figure it out and surround yourself with people with positive, growth mindsets, or allow yourself to be buried in self-negativity and attract toxic people or environments.

Life is too short to be a bummer.

Ask those in your inner circle for honest feedback, they are less likely to tell you what you want to hear and more likely to tell you what you need to hear if you present as open to receiving that kind of support in your mission to grow.

Strive to live well today, and evolve well with time.

What Is the Actual Value of An Investment In Yourself?

What is the most powerful, timing saving, investment you can make in yourself?

The one that gives you the best chance to achieve more than you could alone.

Even if something seems expensive, what is its actual value? Would you invest $10,000 into a high yield savings account to make an additional $400 for doing nothing? In a private education and tutoring that lead to a full-ride $50,000 college education? To save $100,000 in medical bills 30 years later?

Would you invest $10,000 to improve who you are at the core of your person physically, mentally, and emotionally creating greater overall health, happiness, success, and longevity of athletic or professional career?

What is an investment in yourself actually worth?

The point is: it’s not about the money.

Individuals who recognize the value of self-investment are typically outliers. Naturally, through their lifestyle choices they separate themselves from others in a way that can draw negativity as a byproduct of jealousy and doubt.

“You’re going to burn yourself out.”

“You’re going to workout again?”

“That’s not a realistic goal, you should set your sights on something more achievable.”

Finding your people when your goals are uncommon becomes increasingly difficult and lonely. Yet, there are countless people who have done this at a high level and can brandish the unique title of being “self-made”.

DEFINING A SELF-MADE PERSON

Discipline is at the center of a self-made person, and shows up in the following ways:

• Despite the ebbs and flows of motivation, they are willing to show up consistently and put in the work.

• They seek out opportunities, and are willing to courageously ask for and accept help.

• They seek out the competition of others because they know that by testing themselves against others around their level, they gain perspective of where they’re at.

• They are never too good to listen to advice that they may have heard many times before or continue to refine a skill that they’ve practiced hundreds of times.

• Because they are so hungry to learn and love the process of getting better, showing up daily doesn’t feel like a “have to” but a “get to” even on days where they “don’t feel like it”.

Being a self-made athlete does not literally mean you did it by yourself. There really is no possible way to become your best without the push of others.

Even if you are motivated beyond comparable measure, without the guidance of someone with knowledge and experience above your level, it will take you longer to get where you’re trying to go.

A coach or mentor is there to point you in the right direction and save you your most precious commodity - time - by optimizing your time training. There is tremendous value in this.

A LIVING EXAMPLE

There are many athletes who embody what it means to be self-made; however, there is one who I’ve had the great honor of actually watching grow into the person she is today.

I first met Brooklynn Haywood when she was 9 years old. At a young age she stood out because she loved basketball, and loved putting in the work to get better. Her parents were (are still) tough on her and to many people seemed too strict. “They’re going to burn her out,” was something people would often tell me in conversations talking about Brooklynn. My response was always a shrug or a simple, “Maybe.”

When you can’t relate to something, it’s easy to be skeptical. What most people never realized was that Brooklynn has always been on her own path and her and her family were only going to listen to people who understood the vision and possibility of making it a reality.

“It’s not just the kids having to make sacrifices parents have to too! How do you get your kids to believe in themselves and make sacrifices if you don’t show them you’re also making sacrifices because you believe in them!! ”

— Jenn Haywood

The Haywoods moved from Alaska to Washington to be close to one such mentor, Matt Conboy, as Brooklynn was entering high school because they knew that, unfortunately, the reality of trying to “make it big” in Alaska would be extremely hard. Possible, yes, but it’s kind of like planting a palm tree in the tundra expecting it to have the same opportunity to grow as it does in California. Alaska just doesn’t have the access to opportunity that living in the Lower 48 does.

Now, in her junior year at Union High School, Brooklynn’s drive, dedication and unapologetic commitment to her process is paying dividends as Division I scholarships are pouring in along with sponsor deals as a high school athlete.

Though she has had a handful of close coaches and mentors help her, and has attended at least a dozen camps across the country over the years, Brooklynn is a self-made basketball player. No coach or camp is worth anything if the athlete they are working with is not invested in themselves.

The investment the Haywood family has made into helping their daughter become the best version of herself has not only financially begun repaying itself, but more importantly, she now embodies priceless character traits that make her a stand up role model, daughter, friend, teammate, and catch for her future employer, spouse, and family.

The Haywood’s have made many sacrifices on this journey and I know it’s been very difficult in a variety of ways, but for them, the value of Brooklynn’s dreams and the early recognition of her potential to fulfill them had no price. Their story is really special, and something we can all learn from.

So… it’s your turn to answer. What is the actual value of an investment in yourself?

Help, Everyone is Faster Than Me

Sick of feeling like you’re eating other people’s dust? Time to do something about it. Here are 10 powerful movements wrapped into three different strength session combinations for you so you can stop feeling like the tortoise next to the hare.

DISCLAIMER: always differ to learning and performing these movements under the supervision of an experienced coach or adult.

FRONT Squats

Trains:

• Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes

• Core

Builds:

• Lower body strength, power, and speed

• Ability to handle your own body’s force output, and forces acted upon your body (taking hits).

Box Jumps

Trains:

• Glutes, Hamstrings, Lower Leg Complex

Builds:

• Lower body power

• Single leg stability

• Coordination

Note:

This video shows the single leg landing variation, simply land on two feet to perform a regular box jump.

Kettlebell Swings

Trains:

• Hamstrings, Glutes

• Upper-Back, Lats, Core

Builds:

• Explosive jumping power

• Great posture

• Coordination

• Proper hinge patterns

Workout #1

E3MOM: 6 Rounds (Every 3 Minutes on the Minute)

5 Front Squats @ 3:0:x:0

*tempo reads as 3 seconds down, 0 pause at the bottom, up quick, 0 pause at the top

3 Box Jumps

10 Heavy Russian Kettlebell Swings

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ROMANIAN DEADLIFTS

Trains:

• Hamstrings, Glutes

• Forearms

• Upper-Back, Lats, Core

Builds:

• Explosive jumping power

• Grip strength

• Great posture

• Coordination

• Pre-requisite movement for Cleans

Single Arm DB Hang Snatch

Trains:

• Glutes, Hamstrings

• Core

• Lat, Shoulder Complex

Builds:

• Lower body power

• Shoulder and core stability

• Coordination

• Pre-requisite movement for Barbell Hang Snatch, Devil’s Press, and Double KB or DB Snatch

Single Leg Box Squats

Trains:

• Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings

Builds:

• Single leg stability

• Right to left imbalances

• Single leg strength and power

Workout #2

E3MOM: 6 Rounds

6 Romanian Deadlifts @ 3:0:x:0

9 Single Leg Box Squats (each side)

12 Single Arm DB Hang Snatch

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Tempo Lateral Lunges

Trains:

• Glutes, Adductors, Quads

• Core

Builds:

• Lateral strength, power and speed

• Control and stability in awkward positions

Swing, Stick, Lateral Bound

Trains:

• Glutes, Hamstrings, Quads

• Calves, Anterior Tibialis

Builds:

• Lateral quickness

• Bilateral and unilateral landing mechanics

• Body control and coordination

Exchange Lateral Lunges

Trains:

• Glutes, Adductors, Quads

• Calves, Anterior Tibialis

• Core

Builds:

• Lateral strength, power and speed

• Control and stability in awkward positions

Double Hurdle Hops

Trains:

• Calves, Anterior Tibialis, Foot

Builds:

• Lateral quickness

• Footspeed

• Coordination

Workout #3

E3MOM: 6 Rounds

12 Tempo Lateral Lunges @ 3:0:x:0 (6R/6L)

8 Swing & Stick to Lateral Bound

12 Exchange Lateral Lunges

16 Double Hurdle Hops

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There are hundreds of different combinations and ways to train. Doing something is, of course, better than nothing at all. That said, the best recipe is following a consistent plan where you train 2 - 5x/week depending on your goals.

3 Common Mistakes Players Make With Their Shooting Mechanics

As the third hardest skill to learn in sports, learning to shoot the basketball takes hours of time, refinement, repetition, and disciplined habits in order to get good at it. That said, it's very easy to develop bad habits!

Mistake #1: Awkward Stance

Players most often have a stance that is too wide (vs too narrow). This can cause a valgus stress on your knees which can eventually lead to knee pain. It is also inefficient because when your stance is wider than your hips on any vertical movement (jumping on a rebound, shot, etc.), your body leaks power horizontally and you aren’t able to get as much power from your legs into your shot. This can in turn lead to weird compensations with your upper body!

Thus, start refining your shot by first tackling the broken parts of your stance instead of starting from the top down.

Focus on

• Hip width stance

• Toes slightly angled away from your shooting hand

• Legs bent in an athletic position

• Ball straight out from your belly button

Drill: Line (or) Cone Hop Overs

Drill: 180 Degree Shots

Mistake #2: Pausing on Your Shot

Some coaches or players refer to this is having a “hitch”. It’s kind of like when you’re listening to your favorite song and your friend in the backseat starts singing along off key and the entire song is now ruined. Simply put, pauses in your shot destroy the rhythm.

As a strength and conditioning specialist as well as a player development coach, I often relate this in my mind to a hang clean or hang snatch.

In a hang snatch, for someone to lift a significant amount of weight over their head safely and efficiently, the entire body must work together synergistically. Weight lifters refer to this as “triple extension”, but this same term can be applied to a basketball players shot. If a part of the chain (ankles, knees, hips) or also in our case, arms, moves independently of the other moving parts, it’s just not as efficient.

Focus on

• Your legs and the ball moving up at the exact same time

• Pretend the ball and your hips are connected by a string

Drill: Tap & Shoot

Mistake #3: Too Low of a Follow Through

Having too low of a follow through results in a flat shot. If you’re shooting in the gym alone, you’ll know your shot is flat if it’s constantly hitting the front of the rim. Before fixing this, make sure you have worked on the other two mistakes first! A high, perfect follow through is a result of the rest of the process being on point.

Focus on

• Bringing the ball directly above your forehead

• Extending your elbow under then through the ball

• Keep the ball off your palm

• Freeze your guide hand at your release point (right above your forehead)

Drill: Extension Shots

The Free Super-Supplement: Sleep

Believe it or not, there is a free super-supplement accessible to everyone that has colossal positive effects on every aspect of your life. What is it? Sleep.

Before we dive in to the why’s and z’s of sleep, I’d like to ask you to do something a little strange: put your tongue to the rough of your mouth, and now imagine right above here is a ticking clock. There is actually a group of neurons here, called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) that controls your biological clock.

This biological clock is known as your circadian rhythm and is defined as the physical, mental, and behavioral changes your body undergoes during a 24 hour period.

Now, this is very important for us to understand because of the alarming impact this can have either positively or negatively on our daily energy levels, athletic performance, overall quality of life, and aging.

SUPER-CHARGE PERFORMANCE

A study done on the Stanford Men’s Basketball team published in 2011 revealed incredible findings about how sleep directly impacted athletic performance of the eleven players who participated. Important to note, because the study was done between January and March, all of the participants self-identified as being in “peak shape” as they were in-season.

The findings of this study were incredible.

Participants were required to increase their sleep duration per night, but not exceed 10 hours per night. This ended up averaging to 8.5 hours per night for 5 - 7 weeks, which resulted in the players dropping nearly a full second of a 282ft sprint (baseline to baseline, baseline to half court), and improving their free throw percentage and 3 point percentage both by 9%.

That is an unbelievable improvement in performance over less than two months! With results like that, if sleep could be bottled and sold it would be one of the leading sales supplements in the world!

“These improvements following sleep extension suggest that peak performance can only occur when an athlete’s overall sleep and sleep habits are optimal.”

— Mah, Et Al.

On top of the significant improvements in their sprinting and shooting, the players also reported less daytime sleepiness, better mood, and had better scores on a reaction test.

Academically, another study published in 2019 involving collegiate athletes across the nation, shockingly revealed that “The presence of sleep difficulty was associated with a 47% increased likelihood of a B average, compared to an A. Also, sleep difficulty was associated with a 118% increased likelihood of a C average and a 111% increased likelihood of a D/F average.”

Studies have also linked lack of sleep to an increased likelihood of concussions. This could be a result of lack of sleep affecting coordination and decision making. In general, the risk of injury as an athlete goes up 1.7x if you are getting less than 8 hours of sleep.

Over-Worked, Under-Rested

In our culture, we are often programmed to believe that in order to be successful we need to work harder, and to do so, sleep less. This lack of respect for sleep has directed our culture to a strange dichotomy regarding hard work that reduces our overall quality of life and lifespan.

When you don’t sleep well, you utilize only a fraction of what you’re capable of, and underperforming, like your lack of sleep, becomes your norm. Many of us then compensate with pharmaceuticals or caffeine (which, though delicious in the form of a cup of coffee, is still a drug), to keep ourselves functioning.

With drug use, there are of course side effects, which makes dosing sleep like medicine even more appealing, because there are no side effects.

You inject more sleep in your life you end up better protected against depression, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease. Furthermore, if you’re trying to lose weight, optimal sleep is a mandatory supplement to be taking.

Read on for six clutch ways to boost your energy starting today.

Move Over Sandman, Summon a Sleepicorn

ENERGY HACK #1: LIGHT IT UP

Light, specifically sunlight, helps our bodies release day time hormones and neurotransmitters that help regulate our biological clock. Our sleep cycles, or circadian timing system, is highly impacted by the amount of light we get during the day. Too little daylight exposure, and too much artificial light exposure during the day, results in poor sleep at night.

“Many of us are not aware that we are light deprived and suffering from the effects of light deprivation. Because of our eye’s extraordinary ability to adapt to changes in brightness, we tend to not be aware of how little light we actually receive when indoors. Typical indoor lighting is 100x less bright than outdoor light on a sunny day. Even a cloudy day delivers 10x more brightness than ordinary indoor lighting.”

— Jeffery Rossman, PHD

Serotonin in particular is a powerful neurotransmitter known to make us feel happy and is a major player in sleep.

Production of serotonin is influenced by our diet, activity levels, and you guessed it, sunlight exposure. Sunlight exposure also promotes vitamin D production in our bodies, which shares the burden with serotonin or our mood, immune health, energy levels, and sleep health.

Daily Do: within the first 30 - 60 minutes of waking, if possible, get sunlight exposure to your eyes.

• On a clear day, you want to get sunlight exposure to your eyes for about 5 minutes (no sunglasses). Obviously, avoid staring directly into the sun and burning your retinas.

• On cloudy days, you especially need to get outside and view sunlight. You’ll want to get about 10 minutes of sunlight exposure to your eyes on these days. Rainy, or very densely cloud covered, you want to get as much as 20 - 30 minutes of sunlight exposure. As you may expect, it doesn’t count if it’s through a window or windshield.

• If we don’t have access to sunlight (even through clouds), turn on artificial lights, but once the sun has risen you want to get outside and view the sunlight. Artificial light does not, unfortunately, replace the sunlight. Contrarily, artificial lights specifically from our devices are enough to disrupt our sleep by messing up our circadian rhythym.

“Light viewing early in the day is the most powerful stimulus for wakefulness throughout the day and it has a powerful positive impact on your ability to fall and stay asleep throughout the night.”

— Andrew Huberman

Energy Hack #2: Be Consistent AF

The quality and depth of your sleep is greatly enhanced by keeping a consistent sleep schedule, even on the weekends. Your “money time”, as Shawn Stevenson, author of Sleep Smarter, likes to refer to it as, is between 10pm and 2am.

This is when the secretion of human growth hormone (HGH), melatonin, and other hormones are at their peak. And trust me, you want as much of the “youth” hormone, as HGH is commonly referred to, as possible due to its restorative, anti-aging properties.

If we habitually stay up late (past 10 or 11pm) then we are robbing ourselves of the super-supplements golden powers. A sign that you are not benefitting from money time is if you feel fatigued in the morning even after a “good nights rest”. This further expresses the importance of hormone production our bodies experience during these hours for nighttime recovery translating to energy throughout the next day!

This is absolutely terrible news for overnight shift workers and a main reason why it has been classified as a group 2A carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. This is the same group that fried foods, lead exposure, chronic salon or barbershop chemical exposure, and red meat consumption are in.

This is a terrible and ironic reality, as many shift workers are on the job protecting the health of others - doctors, nurses, law enforcement officers - at the expense of their own. Though true money time may not be available for shift workers, keeping your sleep schedule as consistent as possible (even if that looks very strange on a day to day basis), will still make your biological clock happier than catching z’s at random opportunities.

Daily Do: Keep your bedtime and wake time as consistent as possible. On weekends, avoid sleeping in beyond an hour past your normal wake up time, even if that means getting less sleep than normal.

Athlete Bonus Fact: Have trouble sleeping before a big game or event? Good news is that if you bank a couple weeks of normal and optimal sleep before this one night of bad sleep, your performance won’t be that affected.

Energy Hack #3: Collect That Sweat

Time to stack two free super-supplements on top of each other by focusing on a routine to get the medicine of movement in your day on the regular. One mechanism that exercise provides our body is the increase in core temperature, which is an excellent way to stimulate wakefulness and energy early in the day. This in turn comes full circle and translates to sleepiness at night!

With strength training, the wonderful byproduct of muscle is a reservoir of anti-aging hormones. This is no exaggeration, other variables aside, you can stay younger longer if you have more muscle on your body.

Ironically, when you workout you are breaking down your body, so that money time regenerative sleep we discussed earlier is the frosting on the cake.

Daily Do: Evidence indicates that morning workouts are ideal for getting the best sleep at night, so if you can, get your workout in around 7am and watch the rest of your day unfurl like a sleepicorn farting a rainbow.

Energy Hack #4: Eat Early, Not Late

What you eat and when you eat are two equally important considerations in optimizing your sleep and energy. If you eat early in the day, you trigger an increase in metabolism and body temperature that make you more alert.

On the other hand, eating too close to bed, specifically food with high amounts of sugar, can cause sleep disturbances, including nightmares!

Certain foods, and this is likely highly individual as there is still quite a bit of research being done in this area, can wake you up during our lightest form of sleep, REM sleep, where we dream more.

Energy Hack #5: Time Caffeine Strategically

Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman highly recommends that you wait 90 - 120 minutes after waking to consume caffeine (cringe!) because it minimizes the afternoon crash or dip in energy later in the day. Sub out your caffeine with a glass of water with a sprinkle of natural salt and you will feel better all day long.

Furthermore, consume your final caffeine dose earlier than 6 hours before bed. A study done at by Drake et al., exposed a hidden harmful misnomer of consuming caffeine within this window. Through analysis of brain activity from headband sleep monitors, the study revealed that participants lost a full hour of sleep, even though subjectively they thought they slept normally. Thus, even if you fall and stay asleep fine, caffeine can still negatively affect the architecture of your sleep.

Energy Hack #6: Stop with the blue light

In Sleep Smarter, Stevenson says that “Avoiding screen time at night is likely the number one thing you can do to improve your sleep quality immediately.”

The artificial blue light emanating from our devices confuses our body’s biological clock by making it think it’s daytime. In a nutshell, the bluelight makes it harder to fall asleep, creates shorter REM sleep, and results in feeling less energized the following day.

SUMMON YOUR INNER SLEEPICORN!

If you are suffering from poor energy, attacking your sleep habits is one of the quickest, and potentially easiest ways to set yourself on the right path. It’s free, painless, and produces near immediate benefits.

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The Story Behind Make Yourself

The amazing Alaskan coaches and participants of the Varsity Prep Camp, 2022

I believe every single person on this planet has the innate ability to make themselves into whoever they want to be.

I feel so strongly about this, because I was once a nobody from a small town on the remote island of Kodiak, Alaska. Like many other kids, it was my dream as a little girl to some day play college basketball, and maybe even professional basketball. At the time, I was one of the best players in my community, but that didn’t mean much at all as I transitioned from a small town high school to college basketball for the University of Alaska Anchorage.

My first year at UAA, I wasn't prepared for the drastic change in level, so I red-shirted.

This means I practiced every day with the team but did not play or travel, and therefore retained that year of eligibility. This was a developmental year through and through. My second year, excited to see all the work from the year prior translate to playing substantial minutes on the court, I was met right away with a bad bout of mono that hospitalized me at the beginning of the year, and wasn’t able to recover quickly enough to come in to the year and make an impact. I played limited minutes the entire season, only being put into the game when we were up by at least 25 points.

At the end of that year, having put in extra time on my own, having gave everything at every practice that I could, having done my best to have a great attitude and be a good teammate; my coach looked me in the eye and told me “If you do not get better, you will not play more than 5 minutes a game next year.”

What an icy, verbal dagger straight to the heart.

Instead of, “This is what you need to work on to get better” or, “Hey we see how hard you’re working; keep at it, it will pay off.”

Getting good is a lonely journey. Many hours alone were spent in the gym.

She was essentially telling me, "Quit. You are not good enough."

As I left her office, I felt devastated. By the time I got to my car in the parking lot, I was angry. By the time I got home, I was ordering a heavy basketball, an agility ladder, and looking up YouTube videos so I could coach myself on how to get better.

That summer, with a chip on my shoulder, I spent an obscene amount of hours in the gym, at the track, in the weight-room, and not eating chocolate. The result? Complete physical and mental transformation.

I avoided the parties all my friends and boyfriend were inviting me to. I stopped eating my favorite summer junk food, because I wanted to lean up.

And most importantly, every day I woke up and reminded myself, that I was going to be the only person who could prove everyone wrong.

I became obsessed with lonely journey of improving myself.

I went to open gyms at 6am with a bunch of older guys, because there were no other options in Kodiak. I would then put a rock in the door, and go back when I knew no one was going to be around, and work on my skills. I would go to the track, and run till it felt like my lungs were bleeding. I went to the local gym to lift weights and get stronger. I read books on how to strengthen my mind, and allowed the mentors in the pages to help my confidence expand since my own coach wasn’t willing to help me.

Senior season with the Seawolves 2 years later… 20+ point game against a Division I opponent at the Great Alaska Shootout. Remember when games were played at the Sullivan Arena?

The next fall came around, and my teammates and coaches were shocked.

The relentless summer of work that I had put in had paid off, and I found myself not just in the starting line up, but as one of the leading scorers and rebounders on the team. Fast forward three years of college and I eventually earned a contract to play professionally in Germany for two years and another to play in Australia. Part of me couldn’t believe it.

Had it not been for the two years of failure and adversity, and my summer of obsessively improving my mindset and habits, I would not have made it.

Playing on my third pro contract with the Logan Thunder in Brisbane, Australia.

It was not an easy road, and I didn't have too many people to help me… so I had to help myself.

This is why I now love coaching and mentoring young athletes.

I understand what it’s like to not know how to do something, and how to figure it out when your back is up against the wall.

I know what it’s like to have a soft mindset, and transform it into an unstoppable mindset. I know how it feels to commit to making myself into who I want to be, and realize how much of that has to be done with a mindset very few people will be able to relate to.

Ultimately, I believe if I could overcome almost career ending adversity and eventually reach some of the highest levels in my sport, anyone can do it. And I want to help show them - YOU - how.

Our most recent camp in Kodiak this past summer. The full circle effect is a great feeling. Beyond grateful to use my experiences to help the younger generations in not just Kodiak, but all across Alaska!

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Books for the Athlete Mindset

Athletics provides such an incredibly unique classroom to work on life skills like self-confidence, ability to communicate well, ability to cultivate healthy relationships, being a team player, how to maintain composure under pressure, how to overcome adversity, how to exercise daily discipline, and so much more.

The following books are an athlete’s secret weapon to unlocking greatness within themselves! Coaches, parents, and people of all walks of life can, of course, also benefit.

The power of the mind is not to be underestimated, invest in yours, and you will greatly reap the rewards both in your sport and life.

1. Mind Gym: An athlete's guide to inner excellence by Gary Mack​

This book was my bible as a collegiate and professional basketball player. Written by sports psychologist, Gary Mack, who interviews multiple athletes and eloquently uses their stories and his extensive knowledge to help the reader develop strategies to overcome mental barriers that hold them back in their sport. This is not only a read for the athlete, but coaches and parents as would benefit as well!

"The desire to succeed needs to be stronger than the fear of failure."

2. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
This biography written about former Olympic track athlete Louis Zamperini, is one of the most incredible stories on human resilience and toughness. A troubled child, Louis' brother helps him get his life on track by channeling his extra energy into running.

He qualifies to compete in the Olympics, and then World War II breaks out and he is enlisted in the military as part of a B27 bomber flight crew. His plane goes down, and he survives not only floating on a raft in the Pacific for well over a month, but the cruelty of a Japanese war camp as well.

​“I think the hardest thing in life is to forgive. Hate is self destructive. If you hate somebody, you're not hurting the person you hate, you're hurting yourself. It's a healing, actually, it's a real healing...forgiveness.”

3. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

This is an absolute timeless classic that, the more I read, I realize many “self-help” books have been based off. Skip the copy cats and go straight to the source of genius by picking up this book.

Topping the charts as a #1 National Bestseller, it has sold 25 million copies since it’s publication in 1988. Covey passed away in 2012, but his works continue to give a principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems.

"Our problems and pain are universal and increasing, and the solutions to the problems are and always will be based upon universal, timeless, self-evident principles common to every enduring, prospering society throughout history."

4. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, author, and Holocaust survivor. This book recounts his experiences from his time in a concentration camp in quite possibly the most logical first person narrative ever written on unimaginable suffering. It is humbling, perspective-changing, inspiring, and all together a must read, particularly if you are going through a difficult time in your life.

"In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.”

5. Adversity Advantage: Turning everyday struggles into everyday greatness by Paul Stoltz & Erik Weihenmayer

Like mind gym, this one saved me in college. I would go as far as to reread parts of it before games! Erik Weihenmayer became blind at age 13, but refused to let this control his life. Instead, he ultimately became the first blind person to climb the 7 Summits (the tallest peaks on all 7 continents).

​His book, co-authored by Paul Stoltz, is an inspirational read about overcoming life's many adversities and using them to your advantage. If a legally blind man can climb Everest, do our excuses that hold us back carry that much weight anymore?

"Even minor setbacks provide powerful opportunities for elevating behavior. If you eliminate adversity, you miss out on life's deepest riches, highest gifts, and most potent lessons."

6. Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss
This is an interesting read, because it is just a series of interviews with very successful people. Though clunky in the traditional reading sense, this is an absolute gold mine of knowledge.

“Make yourself proud. I think we spend too much of our time trying to please everyone. And we forget that it’s all already within. Your instinct, your inner child, your soul, all of those who know what’s good for you and the world.”

7. Winning by Tim Grover

Warning, this book is intense. The author trained Kobe Bryant, and you don’t get to the level of training someone whose MO was “mamba mentality” without also having a mamba mentality.

For those still working on building up your confidence, table this one till you feel ready to take your mindset to the next level.

“If you can tolerate fear and doubt and loneliness… Winning would like a word with you.”

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