Basketball · Issue No. 18
Myth: Working Hard Is Working Hard, However You Do It
Week of September 14, 2026
The myth: A kid who's in the gym constantly is doing everything he can to reach the top of the rankings.
The reality: Not all hard work moves the needle the same amount — some of it barely moves it at all.
Most young basketball players who want to be great genuinely believe they're working hard. The honest question — one that's uncomfortable to actually sit with — is whether "hard" is being measured against the right competition.
The comparison most players make without realizing it is local: am I working harder than my teammates, my friends, the other kids at my own gym? That's an almost meaningless benchmark if the actual goal is to be a top-level player, because it's a tiny sample size. There are millions of players nationwide chasing the same limited number of elite spots, and a player who's simply the hardest worker in his own gym could still be far behind what the goal actually requires.
This isn't about discouraging kids from having local goals — plenty of players have great, fulfilling careers without ever chasing a national ranking. It's specifically for the ones who say they want to play at the highest level and then measure their effort against the wrong yardstick. Working "Division I hard" or "top-100 hard" means something different and considerably more demanding than working harder than the kid next to you.
Two concrete habits separate players who are actually working at that level from players who just feel like they are. First: real time in the weight room, not occasional or half-committed, but a genuine, consistent part of the routine — the players who get real minutes in college basketball are, almost without exception, the ones who took strength training seriously years earlier. Second: deliberately seeking out better competition rather than being comfortable as the best player in the room. That means camps where the top players in the region show up, AAU teams that actually get tested, open gyms where a player specifically looks for whoever's best on the floor and tries to prove something against them — rather than avoiding that matchup.
None of this guarantees a ranking or a scholarship; a lot of that comes down to circumstances outside anyone's control. But the things a player can actually control — how hard they train, whether they seek out real competition, whether they take the weight room seriously — are the same regardless of the outcome. Getting those right is what's actually available to work toward.
From a basketball training video on what it actually takes to compete at a high level.
This piece ran in PPA Pro Issue No. 18, alongside a camp spotlight and trainer pick for every sport. Subscribe free.