NCAA Top Basketball Prospect Education

The NCAA gets it right with this top men's basketball player symposium. In this episode we breakdown the ins and outs of player development.

ryan@successbeyondgameday.com

www.successbeyondgameday.com

Ryan: Welcome to shift happens athlete Mindset hacks, where we talk everything mindset development, taking lessons from the college and pro athletes, coaches and teams we get to work alongside. I'm Ryan Shockner. This is Cheney Robinson. And today we're talking about the NCAA elite basketball event that they had where they brought in Cheney. It was 14 or 15 basketball players and really talk to them about leadership development, decision making strategies, advice from former NBA players to, you know, financial literacy to working with agents and really a cool sort of event for a lot of these players that, you know, may get a shot at going to that next level.

Cheney: Yeah, good article. And we've talked about this. You've spoken to many, many colleges and universities in person. Zoom so many times. Again, your experience in college. Mine, mine too. And not a slight to our respective colleges and universities, but a lot of the times this kind of stuff is just a check and know the box of, hey, we've hit on this, but we hadn't really talked about it or unpacked it and given you some, some action items to, to do for you to be able to understand and lean into this and figure, figure this out rather than just now you're thrown into this and you better learn it or you better have a group of folks that you trust explicitly to handle this kind of stuff for you.

Ryan: Well, a lot of times the tools that are used to teach athletes this stuff are in that lecture room type style or I, you know, log on to this portal and watch a video on these topics, whether it's the financial literacy or working with an agent or any of that type of stuff. And that's not really, you know, the best environment for an athlete to learn it. I mean, you, they, you think they're active, they move around. I mean, this is what embodies being an athlete. And anytime you get them stagnant and having to, you know, watch something or learn, right, get that knowledge, it, you know, it just, their mind starts to wander. And that's what we saw when we started working with, you know, you have that 10% of athletes that pay attention during this type of stuff and you don't give them that experience and teach them in a way that is going to help them one learn, but then apply the knowledge that you are teaching them.

Cheney: Yeah. And you've talked about, too, that until it's relevant, it's not real, you know, until it is meaningful to them where they are, they're not. It's okay. I'm just trying to get through the day, right. This is not important to me right now, I don't. This is not something I have to deal with right now.

Ryan: A couple of the things they did, right. Is they had people that lived the experience, right. That have been there before for them, where a lot of times in some of the life skills stuff at the universities, you're having people teach certain things that they've never experienced. Right. And so it's not that the information is bad. It's just that there's a lack of belief or a lack of trust between the athlete and the person presenting it. Right. Another thing I think they did well is they you. They brought in experts in certain areas that weren't trying to ask them to be a client. Right. So they brought in a financial literacy person. They brought in agents to talk to them that weren't out there soliciting them to, hey, you need to work with me. So it was a truly an educational experience to where they could ask questions without having to be on guard of. All right, now, what is this person trying to get out of me, right. Do they just want a piece, my future earnings or what? You know, what's their angle? They could truly let their guard down because they knew that threat wasn't there. You know, I think that article talks about three aspects or, you know, lessons that the athletes walked away with, right? And the first one is the game. Basketball is a tool to direct you to different points in your life. And this is, I agree 100% with this. Right. Well, the problem is a lot of the athletes that are playing basketball, playing football don't actually believe that. Right? And this is where we talk about that. Who am I? That self identity, that self awareness, and why it's so key. And you hear a lot of the pro athletes talking about, I was used by the game of basketball, baseball, football, track, whatever it is, I was used by the sport instead of being the athlete that says, yeah, I played the sport, but I used the sport in order to do this, this, this, and this. And that's where we need to get these athletes. That regardless of the platform that you play on the level of the platform, the notoriety, the press, the media that you get, you have an opportunity to use the sport, use the platform to make connections, build relationships, and a lot of other things that will help you later on in life. And that's what we're talking about. We need to use the sport in order to get out of life, not view the sport as the only thing that is going to allow us to get what we want out of life. And it starts at that you know, the 20 difference performance indicators and, you know, helping these athletes identify who am I? What are my strengths that I bring to life, that I use in athletics, that I can use in business, that I can use in relationships that are going to make me successful, and helping them form that identity of self so that they can then, you know, view their sport, use their sport, perform at higher levels because they have that clarity.

Cheney: Well, what's so unfortunate is this starts now, at even earlier ages, where these young athletes are. This. That's what you are. It's who you are. And unfortunately, that's all you are. Right. And that's what's being ingrained into them from day one, from the first time they start performing and participating in athletics. And that's your out. That's going to be you. That's your livelihood. That's how you're going to make your living. And then heaven forbid something happens. Now it's gone. Now what? Right.

Ryan: I.

Cheney: And I think that's. You're not going to mention this, but I will. That's where I think your book is. Why it's a bestseller is because it. It helps to be able to talk through, hey, let's do. Let's do these parallel things over here. Let's understand who we are and why we are not. This is not what we're playing is, again, it's a tool, right. It's part of who we are. It's nothing all encompassing of who we are.

Ryan: I think the larger point just in this one, you know, in their first point that they take away is that right now, you as an athlete have skills that you are really, really good at or weaker in, that are allowing you to perform at the athletic level. Right. Brain mindset, skills that are allowing you to perform that just because you're using those skills in athletics, they can be used in other aspects of life, and it's being able to identify that. But a lot of times we, you know, our experiences drive our beliefs and our beliefs drive our behavior and the experiences that we have growing up, how people talked to us, how teachers, how, you know, mentors, how family laid out what is possible for us, those beliefs, and then those people that, you know, their mentors, their teachers, their family, you know, laid out some. Some experiences that affected the belief of what we could become. And so it's bringing them to the core of identifying, hey, these are your strengths. We can now show you where they can apply outside of your sport. But it's starting with that breaking that we talked about, breaking the cycle. It's breaking that mental cycle of, hey, this is all I can achieve, and this is the only avenue that I have to achieve it. But then it gets into the lesson number two, right? This takeaway number two, where it says, what you got here won't get you to where you want to go. And that's talking about, you know, that knowledge and then the applied knowledge. And so just because you got information and you sat and heard something, it's giving them the platform or the opportunity to apply that to their life, their reality, their scenario, and doing that in a way that they can get feedback, right, that they can learn and they can get coached on it without occupying so much of their time. Because we already know there's 168 hours in a week, 70 already taken up with schoolwork and going to classes and practice time, that doesn't count extra practice time, that doesn't count eating, that doesn't count sleeping, that doesn't count social life. It doesn't count Xbox or whatever you do, you know, decompress. It doesn't count for any of that. Right. So we already have such a condensed timeframe that we need to operate on in order to have success that how can you not just take the lessons you learned, but apply them in new ways, in creative ways so that you can start to cement those changes of experiences to, to impact the behavior or impact the belief and then impact the pavement.

Cheney: Yeah. When it's. In looking at the article, one of the things players to be successful in professional careers, characteristics like maturity, self awareness and social awareness are crucial. And, I mean, she's hit the nail on the head there with those three in particular. Right. And the big, I like the self awareness because now if we, we've got awareness of where we are, the strengths, opportunities for growth, those, we know what those things are now we can start to, you know, we can attack them, we can go after them and strengthen the strengths and we can improve in those areas that need that growth. But it's. And again, what got you here won't, is what you, what got you here won't get you to where you want to go, you know, very simple illustration for me. I used to, I used tree Trump as a bat, basically, in high school, right? And then I got to college and I was like, oh. So I had to shorten swing. I had to use a smaller mat just to be able to perform. So again, physically, I had some things, some changes that needed to be made to get me where I wanted to go to get some playing time, right. But then also mentally too. There's still that, that constant battle of, am I good enough to be here? And it's that positive reinforcement. Yeah, you're good enough to be here. Now, once I finally got that first hit, then there was still that battle, but it wasn't as much of a battle like getting that first hit was like, okay, I'm here now, let's go. But there's, you still deal with that, of, how do I. I'm here now. I've got to ramp. You got to ramp everything up. And I talk about it here, the physical side, the mental side, the social side, all of it has got to, you got to step it up in all three levels.

Ryan: A great example is with the combine guys that we work with, and their talent is good enough to get them to the lead. But then it's the mindset, it's teaching them how to apply the lessons that we teach them to the interview, to acting as a professional. And it's that applied piece of it that then is going to help them get that contract, number two. But when it hits on, you have to.

Cheney: It's not just getting there, right. The goal is, let's stay here. Let's get that 2nd, 3rd contract. That's what we're, that's what we're striving for, and that's where we know, okay, I've really got to dig, dig into this thing on a lot of different levels to be able to get where I want to go.

Ryan: And that's what they hit on. The takeaway, the last takeaway, number three, is think the long game. Now, the example they use here is your financial literacy, long game and that sort of thing. But really, you need to start thinking the long game as you're a high school athlete that's being recruited, then that college athlete that maybe gets to the next level and then how you transition to that next level. You know, there's some great examples of young high school athletes that we work with that they were getting some d one offers, but it wasn't that, you know, Duke, Carolina, you know, the big power conference offer, and you already have a shortened career.

Cheney: Right.

Ryan: The timeframe, once you leave high school, if you're going to the next level, it just gets shorter and shorter to when you're not playing that sport anymore. Right. So it's like the hourglass and the sands coming down, more like that. But you can still think the long game with it. So even though that hourglass and the sands coming down and the length of time you can play your athletic career, it's all right. What is my ultimate goal of my college experience that I need to, you know, if I want to get to that next level or I want to play at these universities? What step can you strategically take now to set you up best to do that? And it may be going to that high level junior college program, which a couple of our guys said, hey, this is the best option because I'm going to play against one. I'm going to play, I'm going to play against really good talent. And because I'm playing at this high level junior college program now, the scouts are going to come and they're going to be watching. And so it's, you know, it's thinking even out of high school playing and thinking the long game. And then when you get to that college level, it's once you, you know, what relationships am I going to build here that are going to help me whenever my career is done? And it's thinking the long game. It's thinking the long game as you're going into your pro career of how do I get with the right team coming out of, you know, whatever draft I'm going into or free agency, how do I get there? And then how do I stay there? How do I interact in the locker room? How do I fit in with the different dynamics that are in the locker room? And since now I'm staying here, what does life after? What do I want that to look like and how do I position myself right now? And so while, yes, there's a financial literacy aspect to thinking the long game, right. It's also thinking the long game in terms of your career because you never know how long you're going to play. And that could be on the positive side, hall of Fame, pro athletic career or olympic career. Or it could be on the negative side on, like, I went through with an injury that made the decision for me. And so it's being able to start thinking the long game and they all feed into each other. Right. Which is kind of the cool thing I think about this article, is knowing who you are, your strengths, weaknesses, that, that true self, that self awareness, learning the lessons but then applying them. And once you change the beliefs, right, because now you have the experiences that change the beliefs, you start thinking differently, and you change the behavior on some of this decisions you're going to make and some of the moves you're going to make on that chessboard as it relates to your life, your playing career.

Cheney: Right. But, and you think about the point you made, too, of you got to start thinking long game in high school. Now where I didn't, you didn't, right. But we didn't have social media, we didn't have nil, we didn't have the transfer portal that we had to deal with coming out of high school, trying to take that next step. Right. And even if we did have, we didn't have the training on how to think long term anyway. So that's where I think what we're, what we're doing enabled in the athletes that we get a chance to work with is helping them to start thinking bigger picture, start strategizing, looking long term. And again, it's that parallel path of, hey, this is a little bit of who you are. I mean, this is what you do, right? But this is not all of who you are. And again, using the tool rather than the tool using you.

Ryan: So this is a great event. I think the key, you know, the NCAA did a great job on this one. So the elite basketball event, the key now is how do you replicate this with more than 14 individuals at a time? I think we've got a good idea on it, but that's really the trick, right. If you really want big impact, that's at the power conference all the way down to the d three level. How do you implement this in a way that can better your athletes, have them perform on the field or court better, but also perform better in life in general, which then feeds the cycle of they're happier that they went to the university, the donations come in. It's the circle of life in that academic world that you're helping to foster. But it's how do you actually accomplish the mission of that student athlete development role aspect and do it more effectively, more efficiently so that again, these athletes have more success.

Cheney: Yep, that's exactly right. And making it a positive student athlete experience. Right. So that when they're done, whatever, you know, I mean, you can be Van Wilder and it'd be nine years or whatever it was. It's that speaking positively about the university or the college once they're finished. Right. And it goes back to exactly what you said. It's being involved in the contributing and giving back, whether financially or just time, because that's just as valuable for these athletes as we talked about here in this article. You had folks that have been there and done that, that came back and talked about their experiences. And I'll reference it again, your book, you've got athletes that are talking about their experiences, good and bad, right?

Ryan: Yeah. So great job, NCAA. With this event, we need to replicate it. I'm Ryan. This is Cheney. Shift happens. Mindset hacks for athletes. And we'll talk to you next time.