Work On Your Game: Use the Pro Athlete Mindset to Dominate Your Game in Business, Sports, and Life: Use the Pro Athlete Mindset to Dominate Your Game in Business, Sports, and Life
By Dre Baldwin
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Work On Your Game - Dre Baldwin
game.
1
CARDIO FOR THE MIND
Physical conditioning is a key aspect of athletic training, and mental conditioning unlocks your physical tools. Your brain is a muscle that needs daily exercise to remain sharp and strong, just as your body does.
In basketball, which is a game of running more than it is a game of shooting or dribbling, proper conditioning is a necessary-but-hated aspect of game preparation. Basketball conditioning exercises range from full-court wind sprints to running hills to flipping industrial-sized tires, and I’m sure there’s new stuff that even I haven’t heard about yet.
One drill I am sure all players are familiar with is the suicide
(or running lines
). The drill is simple. You start on the baseline (the out-of-bounds space behind the basket). You sprint from the baseline to four different points on the court: first, one-quarter of the way and back (to the foul line extended); second, halfway and back (to half-court), third, three-quarters of the way and back (the opposite foul line), and fourth the full length of the court and back.
Your legs fatigue doing the suicide, but your burning lungs and shortness of breath are most responsible for the discomfort.
Aside from the cardiovascular benefit, basketball coaches use suicides as punishment for myriad player infractions. While running a suicide, the basketball court becomes much longer than it looks on TV. Conditioning your mind, while usually not physically uncomfortable, also requires grit and endurance.
In this chapter, you’ll learn how to condition your mind to be more than ready for the challenges you’ll face in the game of life.
THE TRUMPET OF VICTORY
If you think of legendary war generals whose names you know, you may consider Napoleon Bonaparte. Hannibal. Julius Caesar. And Alexander the Great.
Alexander never shied away from battle. However, in one particular engagement, Alexander’s army wasn’t faring well. Known to fight alongside his troops, Alexander surveyed the battlefield and decided it would be smarter to retreat and live to fight another day, rather than suffer mass casualties. Alexander signaled to the rear of the army to his trumpet boy, who would play the trumpet of retreat,
alerting the soldiers to disengage and exit.
Alexander continued to fight, but a few minutes passed and no trumpet sounded. Alexander gave the signal again, and still no trumpet. This was a matter of literal life and death. Alexander went to the rear himself now, demanding the trumpet boy be brought before him. The trumpet boy sheepishly explained that, because he had grown so accustomed to the army winning battles, he no longer carried the trumpet of retreat with him.
The battle was still going on, and Alexander’s army was still losing, so Alexander had to think quickly.
He got an idea: If all we have is the Trumpet of Victory, then play the Trumpet of Victory.
What happened next?
The Trumpet of Victory was sounded, and Alexander’s army, once facing sure defeat, rallied back to win the battle.
It’s important to think about the mental conditioning of Alexander’s army in their response to the trumpet. Even though the individual soldiers couldn’t see the entire battlefield, the entire army was conditioned to know that the Trumpet of Victory meant they could finish off the enemy if each soldier gave his all for one final push.
So, how does this relate to you at work?
Think of your last hour of the day, your last set in the gym, or your last class of school for the day. You’re fatigued and depleted, but knowing that there’s only one more left—one more phone call, one more meeting, one more assignment, one more drill—we somehow always find the energy to push ourselves when we can see a finish line that’s not far away. So you know you can condition yourself, at least temporarily, to bring it
and give your best effort when you want or need to. The purpose of conditioning yourself mentally is to bring this energy level as a normal, everyday way of being.
Play Your Own Trumpet
What’s your Trumpet of Victory? What idea, thought, or signal do you give yourself in order to give your best push and finish what you started? Do you have a routine or process for playing your trumpet?
No matter your answer, let’s dive into how to create a signal and routine:
1. Choose your signal. What signal will tell you it’s time to give your best? Your cues should be 100 percent under your control so you can play your trumpet any time it’s needed. As an athlete, I wore a short-sleeve T-shirt over my game jersey during warm-ups; taking off that T-shirt was my signal that it was Showtime.
2. Develop your routine. Think of your routine as setting up the cameras, lighting, and microphones on a stage before a play or a concert. When the spotlight shines and the curtain opens, your Trumpet of Victory needs to be playing. Your routine is the runway for your Trumpet of Victory. As a basketball player, I had a specific dynamic warm-up routine: High knees. Heel kicks. Dynamic stretch of both movements. Hip swings. Dynamic hamstring stretch. Calf stretch. This got my body ready to go, and, since it was a routine I didn’t need to think about consciously, I could focus my mind on my upcoming