Imagine you get the opportunity to be Kobe Bryant’s performance coach during his hayday. This means it’s your responsibility to improve his mindset, habits, and performance capacity. He asks you to show up to the court at 0400 and you set your alarm for 0300 because you know an early arrival, especially at that hour, will be nothing short of impressive and at the least, show you’re dedicated to the athlete. As you make your way to the entrance of the gym at 0330 you can hear the distinct “ping” of the ball on hardwood and the familiar squeak of cutting on the court. Inside you see that your new client is already in a full sweat, completing his 45 minute warm up. You watch quietly as you study the meticulous footwork and carefully placed shots. This is the moment that Performance Coach Alan Stein [@alansteinjr] made a great revelation. Kobe’s warm up looked strangely familiar to that of middle school team he had once coached. The simplicity was surprising. But there was one distinct difference, Kobe executed each movement with pure precision. Mastery of the basics has been preached by every coach who has lived long enough to learn the hard way, and yet it can never be said enough. Hear how Stein’s obsession with performance was shaped by working with the most dedicated basketball players in the world.

Alan Stein has packed all those anecdotes and then some into his book, Raise Your Game, which is available at his website, AlanSteinJR.com