It’s 8 in the morning in Los Angeles, 6 more in Spain, but Chris Johnson He considers the time of the interview good because he woke up a while before to meditate and do yoga. There we can already see that he has unalterable habits and discipline, and that is precisely the key to his success as a basketball coach at all levels. His revolutionary system, and the importance he always gave to a previously invisible mental health that he now celebrates is on everyone’s lips, have made him cross all borders as a coach. From Jus Hoop, his development center, he evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of everyone who passes through his hands, from promising school-age youngsters to NBA stars like a certain Lebron James.. The Lakers legend, approaching 40 years old and having just unlocked the milestone of 40,000 points in his career – the most in all of history – has also brought out his full potential thanks to his most important muscle: brain. And with Johnson as an involved witness.
In your biography I have seen that you define yourself as a “Mental Fitness Coach”.
It’s not just about being an athlete, but about being a person. My journey began when I came to mental health in my childhood, and I already had to make certain decisions that required emotional skills to overcome adversity. As I faced them, the stronger I felt. And when you progress as an athlete, those challenges are already there. Then I became a coach to work from the grassroots to the NBA, and I understood that the mind is the first thing to train: the ability to create a routine of habits to take care of your muscles, and above all it is the most important. And so I have been creating a philosophy for 20 years to give visibility to all this.
Jus Hoop
Jus Hoop
What is the first thing you learn at your side?
Normally you worry about your physique, and when you train you can see your muscles, how your body changes, but we can’t see what happens with the brain… But how can you not have your own fitness routine? It must be designed to strengthen it, and built with the aim of making it fit. I always say that you have to be in shape, with correct habits, but with me it is practiced to be a true MVP – the acronym he gives to meditation, visualization, and power of self-esteem, instead of the classic Most Valuable Player; 2 minutes to breathe, another 5 to see the bad and know how to overcome it from emotions to continue moving forward, and then the energy of positivity, which when you don’t have it you hurt yourself a lot… And you cause others to see you a lot worse than you are.
I suppose then that you are happy that there is more and more talk about mental health.
It is clear, before it was talked about only under medical prescription. It was something that was not talked about openly, and athletes dealt with it privately. Imagine being a sports superstar, having problems like depression because you don’t know how to overcome a failure… Several games go by, you come across a wall, and it becomes something very serious. You don’t want to do anything, have anyone around her… At that time I lived with colleagues who didn’t know how to solve it, and it was taboo. Since then I have tried to see how we could bring these worlds together, that of mental health and that of basketball, and use it as a vehicle to improve. When you are on the court, you have to have that mental plus, that is what makes you feel good and in shape.
How does a great athlete mentally deal with the moment of retirement?
Athletes who have spent a lifetime training, taking care of themselves… We never prepare, in any sport, these people for these transitions. And it’s not just athletes who suffer from it, I’ve learned that it happens to all of us at some point in our lives. Suddenly a door closes on you, and you have to figure out how to open the next one. What happens is that for them the impact is enormous, going from a full pavilion and televisions, to not receiving a single phone call. And on top of that, in the NBA they retire you, and you don’t know that you’re already out: you wait for a contract, you keep waiting, but suddenly no one wants you. Imagine the confusion that can cause when you’ve had all the fame and money in the world. It just happened to Carmelo Anthony, one of the best scorers in history, and no one has given him one last chance to say goodbye. Think what a burden all that is to their minds. I want to create a program that can help you at this stage. And they are only 35 years old. In another profession you are simply starting out. Those who arrive, but what about all those who stay along the way?
“Lebron has managed his mental fitness perfectly, and that’s what makes him so special”
In addition to fame and pressure, now you also have to know how to manage social networks.
He has his that one. It is a great platform to build your business, reach people who are not close to you, which has made the world much smaller, but… Social networks sometimes do not teach real life. You can project something that is not, everyone has their own channel and opportunity to have speaker freedom. From the point of view of mental health, it would not be wrong to think that it is like turning on the television, and understand that you can be watching anything, including fiction. And stay there. I like to see it that way to de-dramatize. You have to create tools so that there are no misunderstandings, be flexible to understand their uses, and how far you can go with it. Otherwise, you may feel bad about them. I myself could fall into comparing myself with other people, and be wrong.
What is the big difference between working with stars and working with children?
I want to create a mental health program that is within colleges and universities, to help with everything we are talking about. Only 7% of high school kids become college basketball players, and only 1% become professionals. How many children fall by the wayside… There you need to do things well so as not to be mentally trapped. Technology also comes into play, to make it online and global, in any language.
Jus Hoop
How important is it to have been a basketball player to connect with the athlete?
I have learned the strategy from being in the trenches, from being a basketball teacher at all levels. I have been with the best in the world, but I have also learned a lot from the youngest. I have wanted to train myself so that my message is retained, because it is not what is said, it is how you say it, each one on their own level. Now my players come, and the first thing I want is to understand them. And each one with their process, at the speed at which they understand it. This is not in books or classrooms, but in working with the elite.
And among them your work with Lebron James stands out. What is his secret to remaining a prodigy well into his 40s?
Personally, I think he is the best basketball player in history because he “wins” every day. And I mean the small victories, the ones we don’t count. It’s about creating habits and routines with discipline, consistency, when something hurts, listening to your body, resting… A great compendium of things that we don’t give importance to, that a normal person doesn’t stop at. And in reality he has it all: money, fame, he has broken all the records in the NBA, he has championships, a beautiful family with wonderful children… Why does he still get up to train every day? He does not need it. Well, he has unlocked all of his mental power, he is focused on being better, but above all on being a better person, and continuing to develop. And it’s the only way. It’s hard to be so consistent, and on top of that while the whole world is watching you and judging you. For me, who is my brother, I am with him not so much to see what he does on the basketball court, but to accompany him in life. He has shown in public his miseries, and also how to get up. And then you think about what he’s done, and anyway. His message of overcoming adversity, of not paying attention to the haters… He has managed his “mental fitness” to perfection, and that is what makes him so special.
Related content
Joaquín Gasca is an expert in competitive sports, technology and motorsports. A while ago he hung up his cleated boots to focus on paddle tennis and running… age-related things, he complains. But he also signs up for any bombing that has to do with pushing his body to the limit, whether driving an Aston Martin or going to the office on a scooter.
He is very Atlético de Madrid, so when footballers like Marcos Llorente or Álvaro Morata have starred on the cover of Men’s Health, he was there to write them. He just ran his first marathon for Runner’s World, and as he passes in this universe, he’s already looking for the next one to get under 3 hours. If you have to test any type of paddle tennis racket, vehicle or watch, it is no problem. Even sneakers. Whatever you need in sports equipment.
Joaquín graduated in journalism from USP-CEU in 2013, but since 2009, when he joined the University newspaper, he began working as a 360-degree “journalist” in digital and print. The next steps of his almost 15-year career were taken doing culture and sports at Shangay magazine, until he joined Hearst a week before the start of the pandemic in 2020. He is also a professor of social networks and new technologies at Universitas Senioribvs CEU and is part of Hearst’s Innovation HUB to research new trends.
2024-03-25 08:45:19
#mental #coach #Lebron #James #years #NBA #reveals #technique #achieved #players #enormous #success
