SYSTEMATIZING YOUR LIFE AND BASKETBALL TRAINING
December 22, 2008 by Andy Socrates
Everyday we wake up and we brush our teeth. It is a habit that we have developed over years and years of repetition. We don’t think about it. We just do it. And it feels wrong if you don’t.
The best ballers - amateur and pro - adopt the same mindset when working on their physique and game. To be sure, it’s a challenge for most people to get off the couch and hit the gym. But systematizing your life makes improving your game a much easier task. Here are some time-tested methods to help you turn practice into a habit.
30-Day Rule: Pick one thing from an area of your life to do every single day for the next 30 days. This can be going to the gym each day for an hour for 30 days. On each day you can focus on different exercises so that each portion of your body can get enough rest to allow for gains. The further along you get on your routine, the more comfortable you feel. Less thought is required to go as well. Going to gym becomes a habit even on days when you feel lazy out of sheer repetition. After 30 days, you can re-evaluate and determine if you still want to go everyday or reduce your gym schedule to less days. It’s important, however, to build the habit before you tinker with the routine.
Time-Based Focus: Eliminate all distractions and schedule x amount of time per week to devote to one area. This means turning off your cellphone, Internet and television to focus on one area of your life for one hour. This way you are not thinking all day about getting something done, but scheduling a small portion of the time to focus on that specific task. When that hour is done and you are not done with your task, you can roll it over to the next day. What is important here is that you can zone in and focus on one area of your life for a defined time.
Hire Someone: If you have the resources to do so, hire someone for a certain area of your life, whether it be a personal trainer or a tutor. This way you are forced to meet with someone for an set time without an internal excuses to prevent you from accomplishing your goal. You are basically hiring someone to schedule time in your life to exercise.
Create a Visual Tracker: Sometimes a big red X on a sheet of paper is enough to get you motivated. Print out a calendar for the month and write out, “four shooting session for one hour each,” or some other exercise. As you complete that task, put a big X to mark off your progress. Provide visual cues for yourself to keep you going. You can use multiple calendars tracking different exercises.
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