Basketball Study: Keep It Simple and Clear (Patreon)

• LMA Curriculum 

Kobe Bryant's decision tree (road map):

"How many kids here think that to be unstoppable, you have to have a lot of moves? I have two. I have two on the perimeter. I have two moves on the post. Two moves, that's it. So the perimeter, I'll go right pull up, shoot. Left, pull up, shoot. Post, turn left shoulder, fade away. Turn right, fade away. Stop it. So now, when I go right, if you want to try to block it, I'll pump it. I'll pump; you jump. That's what happens, right? So you make the game very simple. But I was just having this discussion with my teammate the other day, Nick Young. I was just talking to Nick that to be unstoppable, you have to first be predictable. Right? To be unstoppable, you first have to be predictable because if you're unpredictable, you don't know what the heck you're going to do, so how can you dictate to the defense what you're going to do?"

Keep your moves simple and your mind clear. A simple move-set frees your mind for reads or fakes. Whether an encyclopedia of moves or pure improvisation, you're only thinking about what you want to do rather than attending to your opponent. Having too much to do is the same as having nothing to do, it means your opponent leads the dance.

Knowing lots of moves doesn't mean knowledge or fluency. Knowing lots of facts doesn't mean you understand them or recognize an overall pattern. It's superficial information rather than intuitive knowledge. It's multitasking rather than truth in the bones. How can you think about all the moves you know while paying attention to your opponent? Your attention is focused internally rather than being present in your environment.

You don't have a plan. You're flying by the seat of your pants. Anything can happen, including to you. In gaming, this is called button smashing. You're lost because you lack a roadmap. There are so many decisions to make in a fight. Rather than having a different answer for every problem, which is an impossible task, have a few solutions for all the problems.

Kobe Bryant has a simple decision tree, allowing him to make quick decisions repeatedly. An unpredictable game becomes even more confusing when the path is too open-ended. Every answer is either "I don't know" or "all of the above." You're not free; you're a prisoner of your limited human memory to recall things at random.

In the game of basketball, the answer to most problems is a jump shot. The key is to adapt the jump shot based on the specificity of the problem. Likewise in boxing, the answer is often a jab. You just never throw the same jab twice, you keep adapting. The situations are open-ended, but if on top of that, so are our solutions, it's infinity times infinity. It's insurmountable. Since the situations are open-ended, our strategies should be simple and clear.

For this reason, our training environment is MMA, but our strategies won't be every move in all of martial arts. Instead, we're looking for patterns and strategies that are most adaptable to the most situations.

Sure, being random and unpredictable can mean your opponent doesn't know what you're doing, but neither do you. To flip the script, you first need a script. Being unpredictable can make someone dangerous; that's why sparring with beginners is dangerous. But it also means you're very hittable. Internal-focused attention means you're only thinking about what you're putting out, not what's coming back. This is why many gyms don't allow beginners to spar because they can harm their sparring partners and themselves.

Even in free play, improvisation doesn't mean aimless. The objective is learning, fun, and safety. The aim is even clearer when there's a threat: safety or subduing your opponent.

What we perceive as improvisation from athletes is often a product of thousands of hours of practice. Practice gives you composure, and composure makes everything you do smoother, as if you were making it up as you go. Smoothness is a lack of hesitation, that comes from reads and experience. You can only make reads if your mind is free to externally focus. Having experience making reads means lots of time spent reading your opponents. This is where pad work can be a detriment because you're learning to read the pad holder, not an opponent. A pad holder is working for you, whereas an opponent is working against you. Imagine practicing jump shots and the coach is moving the hoop to ensure you land every shot. What are you learning? It's an exercise in building false confidence. It's better to practice jump shots independently because you can work on form without building false confidence and reads. You can make the same argument for shadowboxing, hitting the bag, or drilling with someone who's just acting as a body.

To have the composure to make reads, you need to keep your moves simple, your mind clear, and your practice representative while avoiding bad habits.

In a fight, you're not trying to force self-discovery. It's your opponent who will draw that out of you. It's a two-way conversation, you're telling them what you're reading, and they're doing the same. Predictable moves become unstoppable if you know all the ways they'll try to stop you. Predictable can be fruitful, just as repetition can be fruitful. Deep knowledge can only come from patience. Clarity comes from simplicity.

What's invisible and improvisational that people can't see are the counters. I mentioned how you learn the big moves first, but the basics are all about economic movements. Likewise, good improvisation isn't all the big moves that are occasionally successful; they're all the little movements that are constantly successful. It's about countering their counter without them noticing.

Fighting is a conversation. Having nothing to say comes from having too much to say or not knowing what to say. Your opponent will lead the conversation. If all else is equal, the better liar wins. To lie well means knowing a lot about your opponent and knowing what they think they know about you. Simple is predictable, and that's not a bad thing.

– Sam