Doctor Dribble's Formula

If you're a strong willed aspiring basketball player, or parent of one, searching for a secret formula to success, I've got you covered and it's not complicated at all. In my travels throughout India I had experiences with actual yogis, sadhus, swamis, siddhars, and gurus who are heavily sought out for answers about the unknown, guidance along the journey, help with a problem, and special blessings. Just being in their presence can be life changing. Some of the things they told me will stick for a lifetime the same way when I was younger and a coach said something impactful. The puzzling thing is, just how simple success is yet how many parents, players, and coaches continue to fall into the same cyclic pattern of overcomplicating things or just blindly following a negative trend, similar to what the yogis would call "maya" or "samsara", which is basically an inability to evolve into our full potential because we continuously falling for deception.

Yogi philosophy says to accomplish anything requires 3 things: right intention-icca, right knowledge-jnana, and right action-kriya. In basketball we start by setting a goal such as making a competitive team, getting more playing time, or earning more money if you’re a pro. No matter who you are there is always something to strive for. The very popular Goddess of Wealth is Lakshmi. The root word is "lakshya" which is a target or the goal you are targeting because to reach a goal, it takes one pointed relentless focus.

Having a strong will is vital but not enough. What you're practicing and how you're practicing is just as important otherwise you can waste a lot of time and risk injury. This is where knowledge or jnana kicks in. Overachieving is not only about working harder than the competition, it's about working smarter. The structure of a player's progress should be mapped out far ahead, knowing the primary focus of each time of year. During a period dedicated to in game experience comes with lots of physical recovery to be 100% in games, game film to improve IQ, many hours of team practice to review plays and defensive rotations, all while sustaining a routine of daily drills and getting shots up. It's tough to really progress individually in such a time which is why the remainder of the year should be dedicated to becoming a better athlete, mastering new skills, and getting the daily dosage of shots made.

Converting the knowledge to action is kriya. There's no substitute for repetion. There is also no substitute for real, in game experience. There are certain factors in games that cannot be replicated in practice such as the nerves right before tipoff, the pressure to perform, the fear of messing up, competing for playing time, game speed decision making, playing through mistakes, defensive rotations, and more. As crucial as it is to play games to gain experience and measure your progress, it needs to be managed with intelligence. A boxer with a lot of heart that fights too much with too little training will eventually get seriously hurt. The same thing happens too often in basketball when kids play all year round on multiple teams during a critical time in their growth when they haven't even learned their bodies yet. There's no such thing as too much skill development and training when they are done with intelligence. There's a time for pushing the body to make gains and a time for yoga or therapeutics.

By training harder and smarter, you don't have to worry about the results. One of the biggest lessons from India's most coveted literature epic, The Bhagavad Gita, is to focus on the effort and not on the outcome. My favorite basketball coach of all time, John Wooden, would agree. His definition of success is "Peace of mind as a direct result from knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming." We'll save that for another blog. In the meantime, to be successful you just need to internalize the right amount of will power to do what it takes-icca, receive correct knowledge and training-jnana, and sufficient action-kriya.

Namaste,

Doctor Dribble