Relentless work ethic is a must for deliberate practice and a trait shared by all peak performers. And one such star was Kobe Bryant, the basketball legend from the USA. We get an insight into Kobe’s ethic from a Reddit post by an athletic trainer named Rob.
Before heading off for the London Olympics in 2012, the USA basketball team had a training camp in Vegas, and Rob was one of the trainers there. He writes:
The night before the first scrimmage I remember I was just watching "Casablanca" for the first time and it was about 3:30 AM. I lay in bed, slowly fading away when I hear my cell ring. It was Kobe. I nervously picked up.
"Hey, uhh Rob, I hope I'm not disturbing anything right?"
"Uhh no, what's up Kob?"
"Just wondering if you could just help me out with some conditioning work, that's all."
I checked my clock. 4:15 AM.
"Yeah sure, I'll see you in the facility in a bit."
It took me about twenty minutes to get my gear and out of the hotel. When I arrived and opened the room to the main practice floor, I saw Kobe. Alone. He was drenched in sweat as if he had just taken a swim. It wasn't even 5 AM.
We did some conditioning work for the next hour and fifteen minutes. Then we entered the weight room, where he would do a multitude of strength training exercises for the next 45 minutes. After that, we parted ways and he went back to the practice floor to shoot. I went back to the hotel and crashed. Wow.
I was expected to be on the floor again at about 11 AM. I woke up feeling sleepy, drowsy, and almost pretty much every side effect of sleep deprivation. Thanks, Kobe. I had a bagel and headed to the practice facility.
This next part I remember very vividly. All the Team USA players were there, feeling good for the first scrimmage. LeBron was talking to Carmelo if I remember correctly, and Coach Krzyzewski was trying to explain something to Kevin Durant. On the right side of the practice facility was Kobe by himself shooting jumpers. And this is how our next conversation went -- I went over to him, patted him on the back, and said, "Good work this morning."
"Huh?"
"Like, the conditioning. Good work."
"Oh. Yeah, thanks, Rob. I really appreciate it."
"So when did you finish?"
"Finish what?"
"Getting your shots up. What time did you leave the facility?"
"Oh just now. I wanted 800 makes so yeah, just now."
My jaw dropped. Mother of holy God...
It’s obvious that Kobe was putting in the work. After all, he must have already spent 10,000 hours practicing and this was just icing on the cake. But two things are clear.
Work ethic: After all these years of stardom, Kobe was still a student of the game. He had a beginner’s mindset and was ready to put any amount of effort to improve
Clarity & Focus: Kobe was not sweating that whole morning just to spend more time practicing. He was clear on the goal: 800 baskets. He was refining one specific area
Often, people equate time spent doing an activity as an indicator of hard work, as many say, “I worked 60 hours this week!). But is it smart? Smart is not always about doing less work. In Kobe’s case, smart work looked like picking up one skill set pertaining to basketball and refining it that whole morning. Time spent was a byproduct.
Not all practice is born equal 😉