This is a special time of year for basketball players.
Most college basketball players are home having finished their summer workouts on campus. High school players are in their own sort of "limbo" with the AAU season being over and workouts with their high school programs several weeks away.
And that limbo is exactly what makes this time of year so special.
It's an opportunity. An opportunity to take another step in your development when things aren't necessarily set up for you or "easy". An opportunity to truly separate yourself from the pack.
A few weeks ago I was listening to Vince Vaughn speak on a podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show. Vaughn provided laughs like he always does, but he also dropped a gem about mastering your craft which made me think about how important these few weeks really are.
Here is the quote below (that can also be heard here at the 1:00:15 mark)
“...then I started to realize that the week I took off was really two weeks...that it was a week of not getting better and it was a week of getting worse.”
Vince Vaughn is just expounding on an expression that we've all heard before; "If you're not getting better, you're getting worse." but hearing it in the context of losing 2 weeks in your development made it feel very real to me.
So what will you do in the coming weeks?...
Take one step forward? Or two steps back?