A Whole Lot of Emotions

First off, I want to apologize for the late newsletter, hopefully it did not mess up to many of your Sunday routines (writing this has become as much part of mine as I hope it is yours).

This week was a lot of emotions.

In a span of 4 days, Thursday through Sunday, my wife and I officially bought our first house and then I proceeded to play and win 3 games in 3 days.

Draining.

Taxing.

Worth it.

Let’s talk about it.

Read until the end for a quick Atypical Merch Drop Update.

Why I Do This:

It is official… this is my favorite section of the newsletter.

Receiving messages like this one makes all the extra work to give back to you guys worth it.

Never in a million years could I imagine this level of impact through sharing my journey and process. This is my “why”.

People like my brother here are the reason I do this.

Thankful for this community and thankful for the positive impact we are making in each other’s pursuits of excellence.

I’m going to keep on rocking, so you should too!

Basketball Ideas I’ve Been Experimenting With

Your Body Equals Your Briefcase

With basketball being my job, the above saying really rings true: my body is my briefcase. It is the tool in which I do all my work with. It is important to respect and treasure it as such.

As a young hooper, it is easy to disregard taking care of your body because when you are young you feel fresh most days. It was not until I had recurring serious injuries in college that I had to change how I think about my body.

You get one body, and if you love basketball that body has to work and perform at a high level for a long time. It is essential to take the time to learn that body: Where are the weak points in your armour? What do you need to do to strengthen them? What is the maintenance work that needs to be done to keep your armour shiny and fresh?

We all want to become great basketball players and that takes an incredible amount of work, but sometimes the work looks different than just basketball training. This week was a prime example of my “extra work” being a bit different. The priority was maintenance and weight room training in order to prepare my body for the real work of the three cup games in three days.

This summer I will really dive into some of my off-season weight room work that has allowed me to continue playing this game at a high level for now almost 10 years (college into now my 5th year pro). Before we do that, I wanted to make sure that there was an acknowledgement that prioritizing, learning, and understanding your body is a huge piece to the puzzle of basketball development.

Bad mindset —> bad body —> bad movement —> bad basketball

= BAD CAREER

Simple math.

Basketball and Chess

There’s a common phrase in sports and especially basketball where an announcer or commentator will refer to a game as a “chess match”. The idea behind this comment is that both teams are being very calculated in their moves and decisions. Chess is a game of reading and reacting, a game of “if you do ‘x’, then I do ‘y’”. Basketball is very much the same way for those that truly understand the games within the game.

In order to begin to get to that level of understanding as player, fan, coach, or all three, you need to be able to visualize the game. One of my favorite recent Netflix shows, The Queen’s Gambit, is a series about a young female chess prodigy and her rise to international stardom. I highly recommend watching the whole thing, but regardless, there is a scene that illustrates the type of ability we need to develop if we want grow in our understanding of the basketball. Watch it here below:

Okay, now you see the visualization ability I am referring to. Now go watch the start of this JJ Redick and LeBron James Mind The Game Podcast, where JJ Redick draws up a bunch of different actions on the clipboard (the first 10ish minutes or so).

Were you able to visualize how the defense would guard the different actions just as she did with the chess board on the ceiling?

I’ll be honest even in my first year or two as a pro, I could not do this all too well. I could a bit, but my training and practice would not account for this visualization. Now in year 5, this is how I think of the game 24/7. Every drill, every 5 on 0 set we run through, every shooting rep, literally everything I work on accounts for some sort of visualized defense or defender.

This is what intention is.

This is how your training will translate more to the actual games.

To be clear ‘everything’ does not have to be trained this way, there are some exceptions in terms of repetition of the actual motor skills required to do a new move, but for the most part you need this visualization. If you are not able to fully visualize yet, then whoever you are trusting with your training has to put actual defenders in front of you and explain to you why they are there and what their purpose is.

What I am really trying to get at is the ability to visualize the game is your ticket to the basketball conversation. Basketball is a language that needs to be learned and practiced.

You can’t talk hoops with everyone and its because most people cannot speak the language.

Learn it by immersing yourself into real basketball conversations like the Mind The Game Podcast.

The resources are out there, hopefully I can be one of them!

Mindset Ideas I’ve Been Workshopping

Nerves As A Sign

I get a lot of questions from young hoopers asking how to be confident in games or how to calm your nerves before a game. To me it is funny to be asked these questions because the questions are being asked from a place where they are assuming I have it all figured out.

I don’t.

Even as a pro I still get nervous.

I still have games where my confidence gets a little shaky.

Hell, even this weekend in the Portuguese League Cup before all three games I found myself getting antsy on the bus ride to the gym. My mind would start racing and coming up with all sort of absurd doubts, anxieties, questions, and fears. In this mind race, I had a really cool realization and for me it quieted the voices.

It was rather simple.

This was all a sign that I cared a lot about the game I was about to play, and it is a great thing to have something in your life you care about. I realized I was lucky to have something to be nervous about.

This small perspective shift actually gave my nervousness some validation and understanding. Once I felt I had honored the nerves for what they truly meant.

I calmed down.

My thinking became sharp and clear.

Try it next time you get nervous.

Try to respect your nervousness as a sign for caring about what you are doing, and then be grateful you have something you care about.

Then check in on your inner voice.

You should feel as if you took a deep mental breath of fresh air.

I Am At My Best When _______.

I recently hopped on a Podcast for Dustin Aubert and James Purchin’s, The Basketball Academy. It was a really high level basketball and life conversation and I’ll make sure to link it in this newsletter once it is dropped, but the part that really got me thinking was the last question they asked me:

“Trey, you are at your best when _____(fill in the blank)____?”

Normally, I am pretty quick witted and can bounce ideas back and forth fairly quickly, but this question stopped me in my tracks for a second.

What two to three word phrase describes my peak performance in life and basketball?

After a two or so minute pause or so it felt, it could have been 30 seconds, but it felt really over-drawn out, I said,

“patiently aggressive”.

These two words feel contradictory, but they really are not. I’m at my best when I am patient in waiting for the right moment and then aggressive in my attack once I know the moment is right.

There are two Greek words for ‘time’, Kronos and Kairos. The two are similar in their relation to time, but have very different applications.

Kronos is more or less simply chronological time. Time as it passes by. Time that can be counted.

Now Kairos is what I was aiming for when I said “patiently aggressive”. Below is the definition:

I am at my best when I am living, hooping, and existing in kairos. This is a rather difficult experience to explain, but it is a very obvious experience when felt. Basketball wise, it is making that perfect pass just outside the reach of the defender or crossing over right when your defender reaches off-balance or even stepping up to take that charge just before the attacker is turning towards the basket.

Kairos is right action in the right moment.

Trey is at his best when he is existing in his Kairos.

I share all this with the goal of inspiring you to ask yourself this same question:

You are at your best, when you are _______.

Answer this question, and you have a way of being to strive for.

Sunday YouTube Drop

For this week’s video, we had to drop it a day late due to the Portuguese Cup Championship being on Sunday. This video will show you how I am preparing for the upcoming playoff grind. I show you my knee prehab routine that has been saving me this season and then get into a game day vlog of the Quarterfinals of the Portuguese League Cup.

Make sure to be on the lookout for the second part of this vlog, the final four of the cup, dropping on Thursday this week. A lot a lot of stuff happened in those two games against Sporting and Porto with some serious controversy. I think you guys will really want to hear what I have to say about it all.

It should be really interesting…

Quick Merch Update

I am waiting on the second sample of the merch to get here in the next couple of days. When I have these and lets say I like them as the final product, I will then put out a limited 7-day pre-order period for them.

These are really high quality t-shirts with a design that really embodies the Atypical brand. I have tried them working out as well as in my everyday lifestyle, and have loved them.

I am very excited to get them in your guys’ hands.

If you want to be in the first group alerted for the pre-order, fill out this little survey to be put on the list.

Something That Must Be Said:

There was a really nasty incident in the Portuguese League Cup Championship game against Porto. I will wait to give my full thoughts on it until the next newsletter so that there can be some video reference to the incident with part 2 of the vlog dropping Thursday.

Let me say this though… what happened should never happen to any athlete, person or human being on this earth. Racism is some of the most vile shit on the planet and I think evil that dark deserves drastic measures to be stomped out.

My teammate, friend and dear brother, Beto deserves better, and I will not stand for how he was treated.

We will get into this more next newsletter…

I’ll Leave You With This:

I have absolutely beat myself up for being a couple days late on this newsletter.

I committed to Sunday, so it’s got to be sent on Sunday.

With that being said, I have been dog-tired both physically and emotionally with all that has been going on.

I need to honor my body and my feelings.

Hope you guys understand.

Love you guys and proud of what we are building over here.

See you next SUNDAY,

Trey