There are all sorts of training tools out there from tennis balls and cones to mask and weighted basketballs. Some of them are worth your time and some of them are not.
The right tools, used at the right times, and used correctly can no-doubt take your game to another level. At the same time, it is important that you do not use lack of any certain tool or tools as an excuse to be stagnant.
You also can’t afford to have “shiny object syndrome” when it comes to acquiring training equipment. This will waste too much time and will distill your focus to levels too low to actually improve your game, which is what you want the tools for in the first place.
Now that we have the disclaimers out of the way, I want to tell you the most important tool, or piece of training equipment out there (Besides a ball. And perhaps a court).
It is not a weighted vest, nor an agility ladder. It’s not a heavy basketball or defense manikin.
It’s a laptop.
A laptop is the most essential piece of training equipment there is because it’s myriad uses trump that of any tool that can only be used on the court or in a workout.
You already know of a laptop’s conventional uses: accessing the internet, browsing social media, watching YouTube, etc., etc. These are commonplace and can be done just as easily from a phone. What I am going mention are things can could *maybe* be done with a phone but would be 100 times easier to accomplish with the convenience of a computer.
One such thing is watching, editing, and sending film to colleges. The recruitment process is an essential part of basketball and literally can’t be skimped out on. If you do, your career could be over.
Other tasks a laptop makes so much easier are writing down goals, your progress towards those goals, and notes. These are all things that you could do on paper but would be much more difficult as you would have to put a special effort into keeping things organized. I did this for nearly three years and the paper accumulated quickly.
The goals and progress are pretty self-explanatory. What I mean by ‘notes’ are personal development notes- information from books, social media (You are following accounts that give you premium information, not just entertainment, right?), and from just living life.
Something else that is related to this is having a calendar with which to plan ahead on. I recommend putting everything in a calendar, but at least plan your workouts if nothing else.
Also, some laptops allow you to draw and write on them. This allows you to write down, save, and study your team’s plays, which I highly recommend doing.
A final use that I will go in-depth on is using a laptop for business. If you are a basketball player that is 100% focused on the game right now, you can skip this paragraph. However, I’ve noticed that a lot of competitive and ambitious athletes tend to be entrepreneurial. If this is you, you will inevitably need a laptop to grow and expand your business. Some stuff I’ve used my laptop for in this area are creating content such as this, getting my logo designed, and, in the future, growing on social media.
Here are some other uses of a laptop worth mentioning:
Watching film- again, can be done on a phone but it is much easier to see stuff on a laptop
Email- communicate with coaches, respond to other opportunities (like camps or programs), send film
Communicate with players around the world- through online forums, social media, etc.
Buy other training gear
Get your workouts through your online program
Consume content- listen to podcast, read blogs, etc.
Obviously there are many more. We all use computers for different things. You may have creative uses for a laptop that I didn’t even mention here because I haven’t thought of them or don’t do them.
You could get Word and Excel and PowerPoint and use your laptop for school but you already know we’re not about that life (Joking. Kind of.).
If you don’t have a laptop, I would highly recommend getting one. If you don’t have the money, they are worth getting a job and saving up for. (Side note: Don’t do all the work to save up for one and then go cheap. Get one that will last, not one that can’t even do half of this stuff anyway.)
Your future self will thank you.
Athlete-Student
BucketsoverBooks
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