While you were checking the rule book - the Final answer to the traveling violation

What is the definition of cheating within the game of basketball? If your man drives, and you hand check and the ref misses it, is that cheating? No, that was a foul that went uncalled. Obviously, your goal is to move your feet, but any good defender is going to risk the foul at times to recover when they get beat. That’s part of the game. If they call the foul, okay, but if they don’t, then great! That’s basketball.

 

You’re on offense. The defender reaches in and you use your non-dribbling hand to slap their hand away. Or the defender is tight to your body, so you use your off-hand to slightly push off for an open shot. Is that cheating? No, it’s a calculated risk. And the best players are great at taking these risks, because they know all they are risking is a foul.

 

When it comes to the travel call, this is especially important. Offensive moves out of the triple threat are increasingly evolving. And if we get really picky, most of them are a travel. The rules state that if the pivot foot picks up before the ball hits the floor, it’s a travel violation. Our You Tube site is flooded with people arguing about this topic, so I thought I would put my two cents in

 

Now, as players we need to know the rules. That’s important. But if we get too obsessed with the rules, we will handcuff our game. There are a lot of trainers out there who are what I call, “Basketball Purists.” They are constantly going to the basketball rulebook like it’s the Constiution. They feel that basketball is ruined, and the only answer is to bring back the earlier years when basketball was pure.  But personally, I fear for the players they train. They will get dominated in today’s game. Let me give an example.

 

Let’s go back to the 60’s and grab any wing player and put them in today’s game. I don’t care what you say; they would get locked down offensively. The overall game would be too fast, too physical, and the players too athletic. They would certainly need time to adjust. Now, take a player from today’s game and put them in the 60’s.  They would struggle too. Every dribble would be a carry; every move would be a travel. They would lead the league in turnovers…until they adjusted.

 

But we are talking about today’s game and whether we all like it or not, today’s game is not the game of the 60’s! If we want to get real picky, we can spend all day arguing about what is a travel and what is not. But what really matters is how well we can adjust to the officiating. If you do a move and the ref calls it a travel, guess what…adjust. Don’t do it again, or atleast don’t do it that way again.

 

The great players don’t limit their game to the rulebook; they adapt their game to the officiating. And if you don’t have more moves to pull out of the toolbox, guess what, you can’t adapt. That’s why I don’t split my hairs over what moves might be called a travel. To get an example, watch the video below.

 

In this move, my goal is to get the ball down before I pick up my foot. But I also know that if I can do the move quick enough, I have nothing to worry about anyway. Is it a travel? Well, that’s my calculated risk. I don’t mean to be cocky, but while you were checking the rulebook, I just scored two.

 

The Unseen Eyes

One of the first things Ganon mentioned to me when I joined Ganon Baker Basketball was to always remember “the unseen eyes.” We often talk about character meaning what someone does when no one is watching. While that is certainly true, the bottom line is we never know if someone is in fact watching!

Many times, our hardwork will eventually pay off when “the unseen eyes” take notice. This is recently true of John Gilchrist. As many of you know I have been spending a lot of time training the former University of Maryland star. And I have spent much of that time telling him that if he continues to work, eventually someone will see him. It will pay-off if he continues to give up until someone takes notice! Well, he's been noticed.

You never know who is watching. First, Mr Glenn Clark from Sports Talk 1570 WNST in Baltimore, had John Gilchrist on his show. After the interview, Clark wrote a blog about John which has recently been picked up at WashingtonTimes.com, TerrapinTrail.com, and TestudoTimes.com to name a few.I didn't know what would develop from this. My hopes for John, maybe it would help him get another shot in the NBA summer league. 

But as it turned out, a team in Australia saw him in another spot. They saw the video of me training John on You Tube. They liked the video, became interested in John, and he signed the contract. FROM YOUTUBE!!! It's a crazy world!

Remember, the unseen eyes are out there. That should be enough to always keep up at our best!

Feel free to listen to the interview at the following link:
http://wnst.net/wordpress/section/audio/

And read the blog:
http://wnst.net/wordpress/glennclark/2009/06/12/john-gilchrist-to-greivis-vasquez-college-is-the-best-time-of-your-life-by-far/

Trading Time for Time

There are no refunds on time. Once it’s used, it’s gone. It’s a resource. In everything we do, we are trading our time for something. We trade our time for money. We trade our time for entertainment. We trade our time for knowledge. We trade our time for great relationships. We all know these things but too many of us still waste our time. 

Here’s the key. As a basketball player, we must learn to trade our time for time! 

Research shows that on average, every 1 minute spent planning saves us 10 minutes of execution time. If this is true, then if we would just spend 10 minutes planning our workouts, knowing exactly what we’re going to do, we would save an hour and 40 minutes on the court. That is how we must trade our time. Through planning, we can use our time to gain more time on the court. 

So players…don’t just be satisfied with getting your time in the gym. Take the time to plan out your week, a whole month, or maybe even your entire off-season. Then watch as you are able to get more done then you ever imagined possible!

The Breaking Point

I’ve written before that there is no such thing as “half-faith.” I believe that 100%. In order to believe we have to believe in full. However, I have never meant to say that faith has to be free from all doubt. That might sound contradictory but listen; faith is an action not just a thought process.

I am currently in Michigan for several clinics. The other day I had two groups. In the morning, I had a younger group. In the afternoon, I had a high school group. To no surprise, the younger group was full of faith – future college and NBA players. The older group had maybe two players aspiring for the college level.

Now, if I turned back the clock on those older kids they would have looked just like that younger group – full of “faith.” What happened? Some were just not gifted enough, but I think most just never really believed at all.

My goal is to show players how to get what they want. I will never tell anyone they can’t! I will just tell them how hard their journey will be. Inevitably, however, once I show them how to get what they want, many will either not want it anymore or they will no longer believe they can have it anymore. When I asked that younger group the same questions at the end of the camp, fewer hands went up. That’s okay. Those players, even at a very young age, either decided they were not willing to work so hard, or they decided they would never be good enough. I’m okay with that because it only reveals the level of their faith. Doubts can only do two things – reveal the weakness of your faith or the strength of your faith. When the first is revealed, that is always the breaking point of any dream.

When a person has faith, they make a decision that something is true, something is real, something is going to happen. No doubts can shake that kind of faith. When I talk about “half-faith” I’m not talking about your thoughts. I’m talking about your heart. Your heart has to be undivided on an issue. If you have a dream, your heart does not compromise. Once a heart becomes split, that is half-faith and is not faith at all.

I want you to know that you are allowed to have doubts. I want you to understand that doubts are going to enter your mind. Don’t question your faith because of doubts, because it’s what you do with them that truly matter. Faith is acting DESPITE all doubts. And every time you act despite your doubts, your faith will only grow stronger!

The True Meaning of Intelligence

What is Intelligence? We tend to think intelligence is simply information and knowledge. But it’s not. Intelligence is not a high IQ or a 4.0 GPA in school. I agree with worldwide business leader, Brian Tracy, “Intelligence is a “way of acting.” 

I know of many so-called “intelligent” people who act very unintelligently. They know all the right stuff, but they don’t use what they know to move them ahead in life. They waste time, they make poor decisions; they are really not intelligent people. Think about it. It’s not how many ideas you have in life that matter; it’s about many ideas you act on! Having a high basketball IQ, then, is not how much you know about the game, it’s making great decisions on the court – acting intelligently.  

Here’s what is amazing. Every one has the ability to act intelligently. On average, 15 miutes of reading per day adds up to 15 books read per year. Intelligence is not so much the knowledge in books; intelligence is first the act of reading. Act intelligently, and you will gain intelligence. Make these kinds of decisions in your life and in the game of basketball, and you will dramatically increase your chances for success!

Deep Fatigue - An Athlete's Worst Nightmare

I was first introduced to this concept as a player in college. My sophomore year, we started out the season with great energy and passion. By the end of the season, we ran out of gas. It was like our collective bodies would just not operate the same. We were fatigued and exhausted. The losses piled up!

What happened? Our pre-season condiitoning program was so intense and so exhausting that we never let our bodies rest. Once the season started, we were in shape and ready to go. But our lack of rest throughout the year caused us to unravel. Our bodies hit a point called “deep fatigue.” Deep fatigue is the body actually shutting down to an extent in order to recover. In other words, if you don’t rest, your body will force you to rest whether you want to or not. Our job as athletes, then, is to be in the best possible shape while avoiding deep fatigue.

As a trainer, I still have to be very careful of this. For instance, in the next couple of months, I’m doing camps, clinics, team workouts, personal training, and motivational speeches in Virginia, then North Carolina, back to Virginia, then Phoenix, back again to North Carolina, right to Michigan, back to Virginia, over to New Jersey, right back to North Carolina, directly to Canada, and another stop in North Carolina before I come home again to Virginia! And ,of course, Ganon’s traveling more than that! If we don’t find time for rest, we will run out of gas and burn out our bodies. We must be careful in our business, in all our hard work, to find rest.

I tell each one of my players this: They must take atleast one full day off of working out a week. And on this day off, they shouldn’t do a thing. I’m saying don’t do any activities that require your body to work, period. Take it easy. Chill with you family and friends!!!

This can be tough to do for driven, competitive athletes. I had to figure this out as well, because I hate the feeling of not working towards my dreams! But I have learned one important lesson and this is what I want you to get. Always remember, you can get more out of your body in six days and even five days, then you can ever get out of it in seven. Rest, taking time off, will actually maximize what you can get out of your workouts on a weekly basis. And that’s a fact! Try it for a month and tell me I’m wrong!!!

Training Pro John Gilchrist

In 2004, John Gilchrist stormed into the ACC tournament as an unstoppable force. He led the Maryland Terrapins past Chris Paul’s Wake Forrest, Julius Hodge’s NC State, and Duke’s NBA lineup of Chris Duhon, Sheldon Williams, J.J. Redick, and Luol Deng to win the ACC tournament. Gilchrist averaged 24 points to claim the title and ACC tournament MVP honors. Many projected him to be a lottery pick if he declared for the draft as a powerfully built, physical point guard (6’3, 200 pounds) with the ability to score in multiple ways. He chose to stay, had a few media squabbles with coach Gary Williams, and went undrafted the following year.
After a few years in Israel and then the NBDL, Gilchrist came to me for skill development training. I had heard the labels. “Selfish.” “Head-Case.” “Egotistical.” These were the tags that were placed on a 20 year-old kid after a few moments of letting his emotions get the best of him. But the moment he hit the floor with me, I observed nothing more than a humble, hard working, and level headed competitor that still possesses the physical ability to be an NBA player. That is…if he can shake the labels that have been placed on his shoulders.
Wanting to know what kind of individual John Gilchrist really was, I prodded him with questions about his experience with Gary Williams that ultimately led to John’s demise as an NBA prospect. I expected bitterness and animosity, but John turned down the opportunity to say anything negative about his former coach. Instead, he has only said things such as, “Coach Williams and I are close and everything that I have learned under him has helped me. He is a legend and it was an honor to play for him.” In fact, John has only taken full responsibility for the mistakes he made in 2005, stating that he lacked the maturity at the time to handle the “media magnifying glass” that he was under. He has demonstrated nothing but good feelings toward Coach Williams, and has made zero excuses for his own downfall. That my friends is not a “head-case.” John Gilchrist is ready to be a leader.
Of course, there are important keys we’ve had to focus on in our training sessions. To play at the next level, Gilchrist has to drop his hips more often for better balance and explosiveness in order to create space off the dribble, he must be able to hit the floater with either hand with more consistency, and continue to improve his ambidexterity as a passer and finisher. John has handled my critique of him with class and a learning attitude and we will continue to work on his skills and knowledge of the game. When it comes right down to it a point guard must be a leader, his team’s hardest worker, his team’s smartest player, and have the ability to control his emotions as an extension of his coach on the floor. At this moment, John Gilchrist has those qualities.
Recently, Gilchrist has signed a lucrative contract to play in Australia. He came to me to improve his strengths and eliminate his weaknesses, and it helped him re-establish himself. Will he be in the NBA someday? I think so.

To catch a glimpse of our trainining sessions, feel free to check out the videos below.