Grapplers and basketball players are usually polar opposites.
Afterall, basketball players see a court as something they can run up and down on, grapplers see a basketball court as prime real estate where they can throw some mats down and get a scrap on.
Just two different mindsets, most of the time anyway.
However, when I want to look for inspiration, motivation and lessons for our athletes at No Limits, a basketball player is often who I turn to the most.
I use the term “basketball player” but Kobe Bryant was more than that. Basketball was simply the vessel that Kobe used to spread his message of what it meant to pursue excellence to the world. Although a basketball player by trade,he had a fighter’s mentality, in fact, his fighter’s mentality was leaps and bounds ahead of most actual fighters that I know!
One of my favorite Kobe stories comes from the author Alan Stein Jr. who was working as counselor at a skills camp Kobe was putting on and Stein said he had the rare opportunity to sit on the bleachers and watch the Laker great workout. To his surprise what he saw was 45 minutes of the same line, footwork, ball-handling and offensive drills your average middle schooler would use!
When the session was over, Stein thanked Kobe for allowing him to sit in and said “I need to ask,you’re the best basketball player in the game, why do you do such basic stuff?”
Kobe Smiled.
“Why do you think I AM the best game? I never get bored with the basics”.
Mic. Dropped.
I LOVE this story.
To a lot of people, the word “basic” means “unexceptional” “unoriginal” or even “mundane”they cant compare to the fancy, flashy, and intricate moves that they see on IG or their FYP pages but we like to view the word “basic” as “ “foundational” “necessary” and “centeral”.
The basics are a sort of “North star” that you can always refer back to wherever you start to lose your way. This is why we put a premium on all of our athletes having a rock solid understanding of not only the HOW but the WHY of all the positions (and submissions) they find themselves in so that they can always find their way not only back to safety but on the path to victory.
Fancy Techniques might get you Clicks and Likes but the basics executed savagely well will bring achievement and championships.
You saw what Kobe preferred.
How bout you?