As I mentioned in a recent blog post, How to be Great Part 1 – Kobe Bryant, I had the opportunity to travel to Washington, DC, for a conference that has left me excited and eager to apply what I have learned.
I LEARNED FROM THE THOUGHT LEADERS IN THE AREAS OF HEALTH AND WELLNESS AND EXPERTS IN PHYSIOTHERAPY.
Alan Stein was one of the speakers that had a profound impact on me. As a young boy, I was enamored with the NBA and Michael Jordan. My interests have changed over the years, and watching sports, in general, is not where I choose to spend my time. I do, however, appreciate learning about how people become great.
When Alan spoke about Stephan Curry, there were similarities between what makes him great and what made Kobe Bryant great.
TENACITY IS NOT ENOUGH; IT IS ALL ABOUT THE PREPARATION.
Stephan would do drills over and over again until he got them right. If he messed up, he would take himself out of the line and work with a coach to help him get the fundamentals right. He was terrified of repeating the wrong execution of a move or shot. Doing it once is one thing, but he wanted to break himself of deficiencies as quickly as possible because he was afraid of the long-term consequence of poor muscle memory.
In therapy, we use a method from the 1970s called Medical Exercise Therapy. It focuses on precision and proper movement over and over again. This is great for treating conditions like knee, shoulder, back, and neck pain; it doesn’t, by itself, train coordination and higher-level skill.
To train performance and coordination of movement, we incorporate Redcord neurologic activation exercises combined with trigger point dry needling to get the neuro-muscular system to activate optimally.
Alan also told us about a vow Stephan made to himself. Namely, Stephane doesn’t leave the gym without “swishing” 5 free throws. For those of you who know about basketball, you score regardless of whether or not you hit the rim, provided the ball goes through the hole. But that wasn’t good enough for Stephan. He pushed himself to go above and beyond what is necessary so that there would be room for error when he was in a game situation.
HE WILL GO DOWN AS THE BEST SHOOTER IN NBA HISTORY ONE DAY, THANKS TO HIS DEDICATION TO DOING THINGS PROPERLY AND GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND AVERAGE.
What made Stephan Curry Great?
1. He was afraid of what repeating a bad habit would do.
2. He wouldn’t leave the gym until he “swished” 5 free throws
This means he wanted to go above and beyond acceptable; he was seeking “perfection.”
TAKE AWAY FOR THOSE OF US NOT IN THE NBA:
First, we have to analyze what habits we do in our personal and professional lives that we are repeating and need to stop. We need to be “afraid” of the long-term consequence of performing in a less than our best way.
Second, in preparation, we need to set our sights on performing far above everybody else’s expectations. We need to be better than average by doing the hard work on the front end to do our absolute best when necessary.
Enjoy Life,
Dr. Nate Kloosterman
