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“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again."
― Maya Angelou

Quote of the Day

"Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything."

— Napoleon Hill

So You Think You're a Gym Rat?

This article was written by Trevor Quinn who is an assistant men’s basketball coach at Jacksonville University (12-13). Trevor has been with the Dolphins for the last 5 years and some of his responsibilities include player skill development and scouting. He is a student of the game that has continued to grow as a coach over the years and has a bright future in college basketball.

So you Think you are a Gym Rat?

This term gym rat is circulating as descriptive verbiage for every young basketball player being recruited today. It may be a corny or ‘old school’ expression recently replaced by “grinding” but at one time it was the ultimate compliment. As college coaches, we recruit basketball players with basketball talent.

A player has to have talent first but a basketball player separates himself from the talent like he doesn’t have it at all. If we call a High School coach, AAU coach, local workout guy, or parent more times than not a potential recruit is referred to as a “gym rat.” It is an easy thing to say and of course the person has a vested interest in his/her pupil – but is the player really a gym rat?

To put it simply: the lights come on and there’s the rat…Lights go off, and there’s the rat. It is looking for whatever it can to eat or survive. The gym rat is hungry and no one is feeding it — more often than not it is trying to be exterminated. In the case of a gym rat, it is attempting to find any little piece of basketball knowledge or competitive advantage that can increase their survival rate.

These little guys are starving and they don’t need someone to set out some food for them. For instance, they don’t need a coach to get them a gym (Go find a game?), give them some drills (Figure it out?), or get the perfect equipment (just go hoop!). That’s what the best players do! They understand that action takes precedence over plan…While you’re waiting for the perfect setting to work on your game they are already out there doing what you’re planning to do!

The species of gym rat is on the brink of extermination these days no matter what reports we get to the contrary. A recruit may  have all the necessary responsibilities such as school, church, homework, the SAT anything even chores but guess what every 1st team all-NBA player probably encountered these same obligations while they were trying to make it. They most likely attacked them with the notion that these would be the building blocks to their future success.

These are not excuses, they are necessities. Then there are biggest hindrances to living your life as a gym rat.  These are the unnecessary evils attempting to exterminate the population. A gym rat can encounter people setting traps or constantly trying to feed them poison. Traps decimating the gym rat population can be anything from girls to twitter; they will keep you from where you need to be…IN THE GYM!!! It’s up to you if that’s what you want to be. My guess is if you have the respect of the local basketball community, I bet you, all that stuff will come along with it.

Poison can be anything that alters the mindset. It could be a simple as a peer telling you “you’re not any good you should quit.” That is poison to a budding gym rat but you don’t have to be duped into swallowing that. There’s a lot of other crap that can derail any athlete from striving for greatness. You can find stories for days about college/pro athletes who get caught up by the police doing something but I’ve never heard of any of them getting caught while in a gym.

In my coaching career I feel like I have been around just two guys who without a doubt during our time together could be considered gym rats. One was Al Thornton who at Florida State went from unheralded recruit (Ranked #217) to NBA lottery pick. This was my interaction with Al Thornton. I knew he was working out every day 10:00 AM but then some days Coach Hamilton may ask me to go find Al? He was typically at one of 3 places in the city of Tallahassee and sometimes all three in a day.

After he worked out, he would either go from playing pick up at FAMU, to playing pick up at TCC, or just going straight back to our basketball training center. This was a typical day for Al he would be in the gym for 8 hours a day trying to see what he could add/try to do in a game that day. He didn’t know anything else!!! All I know is that was normal for him and that is what helped him go from redshirt freshmen to 1st team All-ACC and a Lottery pick (Just look at the improvement of his season stats over 4 years).

The other was Ben Smith, a four-year starting Point Guard at Jacksonville University. Ben Was 5’10” – if that – and only had one Division I offer coming out of high school. He became a 1st team All-Atlantic Sun player for three straight seasons, won two conference titles, and his name is all over the school record book.

Every night usually around 10:00 PM he got shots up. After lifting weights, class, individuals, pick up and study hall he got shots up. I’m not talking about shoot then talk for 20 seconds…I’m saying this man GOT SHOTS UP! He shot 28% from the three point line his freshmen year. In his mind, he wouldn’t ever let that happen again so for the next 3 years he shot over 35%. One league opponent would make it easily apparent that their belief was he couldn’t go left.

So the following off-season his sole purpose in life was to become equally adept with both hands. He would go in the gym a lot of days and refuse to use his right hand (HE HAD PURPOSE). Ben just came back from averaging more than 25 ppg overseas and because of his dedication to his craft his name is mentioned next to Artis Gilmore, Dee Brown, Rex Morgan, and Otis Smith as one of the best players to play at Jacksonville University.

These gym rats are a rare and dying breed. The term is thrown around so loosely that it is losing its grit. If I call a player and he picks up on the first ring or tweets every hour on the hour he probably isn’t going to be in the gym the amount of hours necessary to make it to the next level (Varsity, college, Pro).  If enrolled in a weight training class…LIFT THE WEIGHT more times than you look in the mirror.

If you’re going to the gym then go with a purpose (To make _______ # of shots or work on ______). You know you may encounter a gym rat when your phone rings at 10:00 PM and a recruit says… “Coach sorry I missed your call. I went and lifted after school, then our high school team had workouts, and then we had AAU practice. I just finished my homework and went for a jog. I wanted to call you back before I ate dinner.”

If you’re returning a call at 10:00 PM because this is your first free moment then maybe a college coach, who really knows what it means, will be proud to justify anointing you as a Gym rat.