Today’s Playbook

🏀 Trap Game (vs Berlin) → Don’t let yourself fall in.  

💪Strength Training→ Full Body Weights Workout (Current Routine)

▶ Facility Tour Vlog → D.O and I go behind-the-scenes at the Basketball Development Center, as well catch some authentic team moments with a mic’d up weights session and practice.  

Let me know what else you’d like to see from my side by replying to the newsletter or leaving me comments on my YouTube channel.

Let’s Build Confidence + Consistency™ , on and off the court!

-Elijah

Trap Game 🔵🟡

Alba could have been a trap game, especially coming off the break.

A trap game is when a stronger team faces an opponent that, on paper, they should beat easily—but for various reasons, the game becomes unexpectedly difficult. It can happen when a team underestimates their opponent, looks ahead to a bigger game, or struggles with focus and intensity. Coming off a break makes it even tougher because it takes time to find rhythm both as a team and individually.

Plus, Alba is a team with no real pressure to win. They don’t have many wins, and regardless of the outcome, there’s no real expectation for them. Teams like that can play freely, take risks, and sometimes catch stronger teams off guard.

They’re more of a project team, so they don’t have much incentive to win—while we have every reason to because of who we are and who we play for. That’s why it was so important for us to stay locked in and make sure we came out with the right mindset.

How do you stay mentally strong in a trap game?
It comes down to discipline and preparation. You have to remind yourself that every game matters and that winning games like these is what separates great teams from average ones. It’s easy to get complacent, but the best players and teams know how to create their own motivation, whether it’s focusing on execution, personal growth, or just setting high standards. I make sure I keep the same intensity, same routine, regardless the opponent. Pana, Fener, Alba. Make the goal each week playing the best you can play, not just the outcome of winning.

On a personal level, the Euroleague break actually was a huge positive for me in terms of resetting and coming back stronger. Having family in town has been really valuable. It’s been great to create new experiences, go out to dinners, and have the boys spend time with their grandparents.

That’s something a lot of people don’t understand about foreigners playing overseas—we miss out on holidays, like Christmas, and all those in-between moments with family. So having them here, sharing meals like empanadas (homemade from my Argentinian mother-in-law), and making all those memories has meant a lot.

Weights Workout (From Facility Tour) 💪

Link to my General Strength Training For In-Season 

I rotate through different workouts depending on areas of need and to keep things interesting. I’ll keep sharing my routines here and hope they are useful to you!

For today’s routine, you can watch the specific exercises in this week’s YouTube Video (linked below)

Q&A ❓

Jakob on Email asked…

“How do you avoid the pull of social media and stay focused?”

This is a great question because I think we often forget—we don’t read newspapers anymore. Social media is how we interact, how we get our news, how we stay connected with family and friends when we’re away.

So instead of just trying to avoid social media altogether, I’ve been working on developing a better mindset around it. For me, the biggest shift has been making sure I create more than I consume. And when I do consume, I make sure it aligns with the reality I want to create for myself.

That means I’m not getting caught up in comparing myself to other people’s highlights. I’m not mindlessly scrolling through things that don’t add value to my life—whether that’s memes, negativity, or distractions that don’t serve me.

Lately, I’ve been testing out this product called Brick. I wanted to switch to a flip phone, but living overseas, that’s not really practical. Brick is a device that lets you “brick” your phone—locking it into certain modes. When I come home at night, I have a setting that only allows certain apps for family time. I have another setting for deep work, another for being present. It helps me control my usage instead of letting social media control me.

That’s the biggest lesson I’ve been working on: using social media as a tool instead of letting it use me.

I’ve also been paying more attention to those moments when I find myself doom-scrolling or reaching for distractions. When that happens, I try to pause and ask myself: What emotion am I avoiding? Because emotions are just energy in motion—so what energy am I trying to escape?

And it’s interesting—if you delete Instagram or another app, your brain will still instinctively go to where it used to be. That habit is still there. So now, when I catch myself doing that, I take a moment to reflect: Why am I looking for that distraction? What’s happening in the present moment that I’m trying to escape?

For me, I’ve realized that I’m always in “get things done” mode. I’m always thinking about the next task. So allowing myself time and space to just relax, to be present, to not always be in productivity mode—that’s something I’m working on.

And honestly, it’s been helping a lot.

God Bless! Faith + Consistency™

🚨Want to see your question answered above? Reply to the newsletter or reach out to me on social. I will group all the questions together and be answering them on the newsletter and vlog in the coming weeks. Cheers!🚨

YouTube Journey▶

This week on the vlog me and D.O. toured our new Basketball Development Center together and shared some insights about our workouts and experiences in NBA and Euroleague. I was also mic’d up for weights and team practice and had some fun with Shane, Vinny, Roddy, Jordan and the rest of the crew.

Hope you enjoy!

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If you have comments or questions or suggestions, PLEASE respond to the newsletter about anything. I want to hear from you and I promise, I read every response. My goal is to continue making a great Playbook and building a great community where we all get better together. And you’re a part of that journey!

Let’s Build Confidence + Consistency™ , on and off the court!

Elijah