Ballin’ like Lebron James
There’s something in the way that Lebron won with the Cavs in the 2016 finals which makes me think anything is possible. He fulfilled his promise of winning the championship for Cleveland.
Also, he’s Lebron motherf*king James. No matter where you identify on the GOAT political spectrum, Lebron is a great player.
I am 6"3, but I’m not the best baller around. I do love the game, but there comes a point in time where many of us realize: “man, I’m not as good as the rest of these dudes.”
Which begs the question: how can I improve, how do I become a better basketball player?
The answer came to me as: why not study your favorite player’s life and practices?
I can’t say that it made me a better player in the truest sense, it takes a lot actual on-court practice and dedication to do that.
It did make me better at keeping my health, my mindset on approaching things better.
So,
Here are five things I learned from Lebron:
Number 1. Be authentic to who you are in your career.
Lebron says that his bikeathon in his hometown, was about him being authentic to how he used to train in the summertime to get back into shape.
He mentioned how he loves that TVs and movies engage the mind and its emotions. The man loves his SpongeBob.
This relates to the saying of the legendary management guru Peter Drucker: don’t staff from weakness. If you’re gonna do things, you might as well use your first-hand experiences and strengths as a basis for new projects and adventures in your career. If you don’t use your authentic experiences and strengths, it takes a lot more energy and effort to get to where you want to be.
2. When you take a big L, find ways the things that could have been done better.
The late Kobe Bryant had a studious practice of film watching, having said that he’d usually watch film for five hours straight just to get better. He paid attention to detail in studying games, from the very beginning of the warmups to the end of the game.
There was a college player who was told by Kobe to re-watch the Finals game they lost, even if it was painful to do so since it had just a recent loss, because she’d have a better chance not to make the same mistakes.
When Lebron loses badly, he replays the game in his head and asks himself the following questions:
- What happened throughout the course of the game that made this loss become a bad loss?
- What did I do?
- What did I not do?
- What did we not do?
Note that I said Lebron replays the game in his head. He is known to possess an outstanding photographic memory. He can rerun and describe a play in detail, movement-by-movement of each of the ten people on the court. He knows if the last guy on the bench of a team is left-handed or a shooter. Small details. And all because he studies and pays attention to the game.
In the case of basketball, losing can be more exciting than winning, because losing will show you the areas where you can do better. (Another thing Kobe said)
3. Sleep is when the body heals itself.
Lebron will take a 2 hour 30 minute nap on game days. Coincidentally, Giannis Antetokounmpo does the same, but with a 2 hour 45 minute nap.
These two don’t take naps for the fun of it, they do it for the performance. Lebron says its the best way to recover from a game.
For the night-owls and people who have a hard time sleeping, like myself, this advice is a bit hard to put into practice. How exactly do you take a nap for 2+ hours? And isn’t that kind of a waste of time? I think the answer is not to go extra and nap, but to guard your sleep times. Simple things like not using social media before going to bed is easier said than done, but add up into better sleep, and set you up for the day ahead.
Lebron says optimal REM sleep is the most important thing. He sleeps around 12 hours total during a day. That’s half a day, but its what you do when you’re the best in the world.
Sleep is 1/3 of our lives, and for athletic performance, it is clear that optimal sleep can give you a edge.
4. You are what you eat.
The body is a sponge. It absorbs whatever you give it, says Lebron’s Trainer, Mike Mancias. In the NBA Finals of 2014, Lebron cramped up.
The cramp game.
This drove LBJ and Mancias to dive in deep into what he was unknowingly consuming from his products. Apparently not all the ingredients in LBJ’s whey supplements were entirely clean, despite their legitimacy and branding.
So what did they do?
They made their own brand of supplements to ensure that LBJ wouldn’t have to suffer a cramp game like that again.
5. For longevity in your field, be consistent.
LBJ preaches consistency, in his training, in his eating, and in his pre-game routines. The question that ran in his mind in his rookie year was: ” How can I figure out how to be more consistent with my training?” This was when he found his trainer, and ever since, he’s trusted Mancias with consistent training and ensuring his longevity.
LBJ has stated that he’s always wanted to have a long career, and it shows that even in his twilight years, he still produces due to his consistency.
His focus is constantly on the consistency of doing the right things.
By the way, I learned all these in the podcast by Tim Ferriss, where Lebron James talks about basketball, his trainer, and business.
Have any thoughts? Leave a comment down below.
