Foreign Podcast is brought to you by Head Start Basketball.

This was kind of my light bulb moment.

It's not about the transaction of getting basketball skills.

It's about the transformation of getting the life skill of learning to be aggressive.

Because when we break down the word aggressive, it's comprised of two things, Focus and force.

Think about that.

Focused and force.

What can we do in life without those two elements?

Jason Parker is the founder of JP3 Training in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he strives to help basketball players grow their skills and aggressiveness.

Prior to starting JP3 in August of 2025, Jason served 12 years as an Athletic Director at Muskogee Public Schools, Sopulpa Public Schools and Monte Casino School, all in the state of Oklahoma.

Jason earned his juris doctorate in 2012 from Tulsa and passed the Oklahoma Bar Exam in 2013.

While completing his JD, he served as a graduate assistant in the athletic department at Tulsa.

As a player, Jason graduated from Memorial High School, finishing third academically and was the school's all time leading scorer.

He went on to play at the University of Tulsa where he played on an NIT championship team in 2001 and in the NCAA tournament in 2002 and 2003.

While at Tulsa, he received several honors as A Student Athlete, 2004 College Basketball Student of the Year Finalist, 2004 ESPN Second Team Academic All American 2003 ESPN Third Team Academic All American 2003 NCAA Tournament Second Round Player of the Game.

He finished his playing career in the top 10 in Tulsa Men's basketball history in points, assists, steals and three pointers.

After receiving his undergraduate degree from Tulsa, Jason played professionally in top leagues in Italy, Russia and Greece, as well as the NBDL coaches.

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Get ready to take some notes as you listen to this episode with Jason Parker, founder of JP3 Training.

Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads podcast.

It's Mike Cleansing here without my co host Jason Sunkel tonight.

But I am pleased to be joined by Jason Parker, newly crowned head of JP3 training.

Jason, welcome to the Hoop Heads pod.

Thanks for having me, Mike.

Excited to have you on.

Looking forward to diving into all of the interesting things that you've been able to do in your career.

You have a different path, I will say, than most of the people that we've had on the podcast.

So let's start by going back in time.

Tell me a little bit about your experiences with the game of basketball as a kid.

What made you fall in love with it?

Well, it's funny because some of my most in Deadwolf's experiences with the game of basketball started with failure.

And so I'm one of the things I remember most was seventh grade thinking I was good enough to make, you know, the big local travel AAU team.

I didn't make it.

They told me I wasn't good enough to my face.

Actually, they didn't even do it like they cheat nowadays and put those numbers.

They said, no, you're not ready.

And it just left a mark on me, man.

It burned a hole in me.

It lit a fire underneath me.

And then again, as a ninth grade student, I'd actually kind of had a bad experience at a middle school.

So my parents transferred me to a new school for ninth grade.

And I remember like I was big on goal setting and affirmations and the very first day my dad dropped me off, I look up at the marquee outside the school and I said, you know what?

I'm going to be the greatest player to ever come from this school.

And then three months later, I proceeded to not make the team.

And so it was a rude awakening.

But that's when my dad stepped in and said, hey, listen, you got these goals.

You, you want to go on a Certain path.

But you, you don't work, you know, you're not putting in the work.

So if I give you the steps, if I give you the support, are you willing to, to go through the process?

And I did, and I tell people all the time that was one of the greatest decisions I've ever made because it essentially allowed me to jump the lie.

I went in the next nine months from not making the varsity team at all to actually being a 20 point scorer, the least on the team as a sophomore, and ended up as the school's all time leading scorer.

And so it's debatable whether I'm the greatest of all time.

A lot of people have their, their selections because we've had a lot of success.

Tulsa Memorial High School, I think maybe the winningest program in all of Oklahoma at this point as far as state championship's concerned.

But my jersey is retired so I can at least say I'm one of them one.

So nice.

All right, so what does that look like?

What's the path?

You've got goals now.

Your dad steps in to say, hey, here's the work you got to put in to reach those goals.

So what did that look like?

What did the work look like?

Is that you in the gym with your dad?

Is that you in the gym by yourself?

Is that pickup basketball?

Is that a combination of all those things?

What did you do to get to that point?

Well, it was really weird because we see it all the time now with kids going to trainers.

I mean it's like everybody's got a personal coach.

But this was 25 years ago.

And so literally my dad, he's a law professor, so he has the flexibility to come up to the school every day and we would basically work out after practice.

And my teammates, especially the older ones, used to make fun of me, say, hey, go down there to daddy day camp or whatever it is you're doing.

And so like I said, it took about nine months before it took whole.

And really they started to see the difference.

And it's funny because a lot of those guys reach out to me today and they're like, they admired that so much that they're actually going through that process with their kids.

But to answer your question, it started with the structure, it started with the support, and then from there because we see so many kids have skills.

I tell people all the time the average kids player today is more skilled than Michael Jordan was at his same age, at their same age.

And so the amount of skills player players have is incredible.

But what we found is so many are missing that one key ingredient, which is the aggressiveness.

And the reason is because aggressiveness is this taboo word that everybody says behind closed doors, but nobody really defines and teaches it.

And my dad was just great at it.

I, I, one of the things I now teach about aggressiveness is the fact that it's comprised of two things, your identity and then your attention.

So basically who you are in your head and then the plan that you go about on the court.

And my dad was great as at establishing a plan for me on the court.

Maybe so too much.

Maybe he was too good at it because at some points my, my coaches would say, stop looking up there to your dad.

But, but we would have a specific goal for how many paint touches I was trying to get in the quarter, how many looks at the rim, how many, you know, deflections.

And all of this equals aggressiveness.

It was an accountability measure.

And I really tell people that's what set me apart.

Because I was your average kid, average size, you know, pretty smart kid, I would say good academically.

And the only reason I say that is I was a good kid.

And it's so hard for kids to be aggressive.

Mean dogs court.

And I'll never forget I had a substitute teacher maybe my 10th or 11th grade year and she, she was a long term sub.

She had been there for about a month or so and she came to a basketball game and the next day I walk in the class and she was like, Mr. Jason Parker, who was that person out there on the court last night?

Like I have known you for a month and you haven't said a.

And you were like this animal out there.

And so it was really, because I had that identity and that intention and I was just able to go when nine out of 10 kids are just hesitant.

And I really think that was the difference maker for me.

I think the idea of having a plan and you know, well that so many kids who work on their game, right, you see them at the gym or you see them at the park or wherever it is that they're, they're working out and it's sort of like, yeah, I'm working on this, but there's not a plan.

And what I sense from you is that what your dad put together for you was systematically, this is what we're going to do.

This is where we're at right now.

Here's the path, here's where we want to end up.

And then all those structured steps along the way ended up building you to where you want it to go.

Whereas so many kids are just like, I'm going to work on my jumper or hey, I got to have a better handle or whatever.

And there's not really a plan of how that all fits together to make you a better player when you step on the floor.

And so your dad put together that for you, which again, not many people have the opportunity to have someone to, to pour into them in that same way.

So when you think about yourself today as a coach and what you do with the kids that you work with, what part of your dad do you see in yourself every day when you catch yourself and you're doing something or you're saying something, you're like, oh that's, that's my dad.

What, what is that for you?

Well, I think it's the ability to go from awareness to application.

And so once you become aware of whether it's a deficiency, you know, there's a area of your where you're not good enough, like was was clear, became clear to me in the two situations I mentioned or, or you become aware of maybe a goal, like I really want to reach this goal.

The awareness is key because now you understand that there's something to work towards.

Once we have the awareness, then comes the accountability.

And so the way we do that now with the players we work with is there's a weekly check in process of hey, these are your deficiencies that we've clearly defined.

These are your goals that you've defined.

Now here's how we're going to get to them.

Either you're following those steps or you got or you're not.

That accountability then molds itself, transforms into aggressiveness because now they have a plan on how to get to anything.

And once you have a plan, it's just like a habit, right?

You become confident in your habits because you're doing them all the time.

And so once you go through that three step process, application naturally happens.

So that's where I see myself applying and that's one of the things I try to even help other trainers in doing is to get away from just the skills and drills for no reason.

How does this apply in this particular game?

And don't, don't be wrong, there's not 100% application by any means, but a large part of what we're doing should apply to the players games.

And so I have to have intention in my training.

And again that helps the player because they now have context for okay, I've been in this situation, this is where I'm struggling with My offhand or coming off ball screens or defending and getting over balls, whatever the case may be.

Now, as a trainer that informs me on how I need to conduct the training process and so on and so forth.

So they basically feed into each other and that was the biggest thing that, that I learned from just coming up with that.

All right, let's build on that.

I know we're kind of jumping way ahead through your story, but let's stay with that training piece of it.

When you onboard a training client so you have a kid that comes to you, that whatever somebody heard about you or they, they, they, hey, I want to go, I'm going to come work with Jason.

What does that process look like?

How do you go about putting together that plan, analyzing the kids game, getting a feel for what they need?

How do you go about doing that?

How long does it take?

What's your process?

Well, great question because I think the process is no different than onboarding an employee or, or anything where this is a relationship based business.

Right.

I, I tell parents I'm going to be like the fourth or fifth family member.

You're going to see me at games, you're going to be receiving text messages and videos from me.

And it all starts with a conference call just like this.

Because they have to understand that they're signing on to something that takes commitment.

They didn't get to where they were overnight and they're not going to get past their overnight.

So it's a process where we're going to work hand in hand.

And I really work hard to lay out the ins and outs of what that process is going to look like and the fact, most importantly that there's commitment required, like how many times you're going to show up, there's consistency required as far as the length of, you know, whether we're doing six months or 12 months.

Like this is something that you're going to be a part of, you know, if you're really going to be a part of it.

So that kind of sets the tone and that kind of weeds out those that really want it from those that don't.

From there we go into the weekly accountability with the players or I just take a step back and say from there they have a personalized plan which is just a quick little five minute survey which basically tells me what they want to accomplish over the next three to six months.

And then secondly, what do they see as the biggest impediments or deficiencies to stop them from getting it?

We're then going to attack it you would be surprised, but nine out of 10 kids, it's really an competence deficiency more so than even a skill set because we've all seen kids who lack the skills but have the confidence really be able to effectuate a lot of good things out on court.

And so we, we get that plan and then we attack it week to week.

They come in two times a week to see me, but in between times they're receiving homework assignments which are quick videos, I do the research or either I make the videos myself on my YouTube channel and you know, anybody can go to my JP3 training YouTube channel and see all the workouts we have from to skill sessions to finishing workouts, to dribbling, even stretching, strength and conditioning.

So my athletes get those workouts assigned to them every week and then we follow up at the end of the week to make sure that they've been accomplished.

Obviously sometimes there's full accomplishment there, sometimes there not so much.

So that's where the monthly report comes in, where parents kind of receive a check in of what's been going on.

And that basically addresses everything from the mindset to the skill set to, you know, what's next.

The third element, which I think is critical is a film review.

Every athlete gets at least one film review a month or we'll come to an in session game ourselves or in person.

And that's where the application comes to bear because we're really able to say, hey, you're doing great.

We're also able to see context for the player because role is important, fit opportunity in the team.

So that allows us to really calibrate what we're telling the athlete and what the caliber and what the athlete's expectations are to their particular environment.

So those three elements are really what tie it all together to go from that awareness to that application.

Like earlier as you were thinking about.

Putting together your training business.

So for people who don't know, and we're going to get into this as we go along, Jason is a long time athletic director, so he wasn't always a basketball trainer.

So as you're thinking about, hey, and we'll talk about the what, the why and all that stuff, but just how long did you kind of have the idea for JP3 training in your mind and what did you, how'd you go about putting together that plan that you just described for us?

How long had you kind of been holding that in your head that it was something that you, you wanted to kind of jump ship and do well?

So I played professional ball after I Finished college and then I hurt my knee.

So I played for six years, hurt my knee and I end up back in law school and I'm like dreading it, I hate it.

All I want to do is go hoop.

And kids started to come to me or parents and say, hey, can you train my kid?

And so it was really this odyssey which began over 15 years ago of just training kind of on the side as I built my athletic director career.

And as you're doing that in your spare time, first of all, you're following it, falling in love with it, you're gaining an expertise on what works with different players, what works in different environments and different etc.

And then it, it comes to the point where the rubber meets the road and it's like, what is the difference between the kids that apply it and the kids that know because they're all growing in skill level.

I mean you can see that within a month's time, sometimes even less.

But what is that difference maker?

And that's where I was able to kind of hearken back to my experience and say, well, what made me different?

I, I wasn't the biggest, I wasn't fastest, I wasn't the strongest, definitely wasn't the smartest, but I was the most aggressive.

Now it's about reverse engineering that and finding out how you become the most aggressive.

And, and here's the kicker to it all, because this is why this is key.

And this was kind of my light bulb moment.

It's not about the transaction of getting basketball skills, it's about the transformation of getting the life skill, of learning to be aggressive.

Because when we break down the word aggressive, it's comprised of two things.

Focus and force.

Think about that.

Focused and force.

What can we do in life without those two elements?

Like without a clear path or a clear want and a sense of urgency, which is the, the force part.

We can't accomplish anything, right?

We can't even get a bite to at night.

You know, you can't marry someone, you can't get a degree, you can't do anything without aggressiveness.

And so once I had that aha moment and I look back on my journey, I say, well, I was able to finish this on schools all time score.

I was able to be a two time all American at the college level.

I was able to earn a law degree, play professionally, be an athletic director.

Some of the larger schools in and throughout Oklahoma, become the Oklahoma president of the AD associate.

All of these things based on focus and force.

And so if we can get this instilled in athletes at a young age with the tool of a basketball.

Wow.

You know?

Wow.

And so I think so many, so often, even me as a parent, we forget that because it becomes about X's and O's and score points and you got to be starting and blah, blah, blah.

And it's like, you know, what I played for, maybe counting college, high school, college and pro, I would say for.

For a.

Let's say, call it 14 years, which is a long career.

14 years is a small component of a lifetime.

But I walked away with the skill set, which has impacted everything.

And so once I had that moment that, that realization, I'm like, I'm switching it all.

I'm not.

It's no longer.

I'm no longer leading with skills.

I'm leading with the.

With the mindset, the aggressiveness piece, the understanding of identity and intention in order to create transformation in student athletes.

I think what you just said is a theme that I've hit on on the podcast with lots of different guests, and it's one that I always keep coming back to.

And when you said you use basketball as a tool, right, and basketball is a tool to be able to, yeah, teach basketball skills, but also to be able to teach a kid about life and use the skills, use the mindset, use the things that you can apply in basketball and understand that it's not just applicable on the basketball floor.

These are things that can transfer beyond that to your life, your current life, but also your life.

As you said, for all of us, no matter how good we are, no matter how much we love the game, at some point that ball stops bouncing.

And if the only.

Right.

If the only thing that you've gotten out of basketball is.

Basketball is a job, then you've missed out, that you've missed out, or somebody, somebody along the way, some coach has not done what they're supposed to do.

To be able to give you more than just the game of basketball, you have to be able to develop those life skills and that mindset and that mentality that you're talking about.

And so that definitely struck a chord with me.

It's something that, when I think about what it is that I try to do with the game of basketball now is I try to give back in some way, right?

I try to utilize the game to be able to have an impact on people, whether it's coaches through this podcast or whether it's players that I work with in my camp or whatever it might be, you're trying to give them those tools that they need in order to, not to succeed on the floor, but to succeed in life.

And it sounds like that's sort of the grounding philosophy of everything that you did.

When that light bulb went off for you, you were like, ah, it's not just about basketball.

I got to make sure the kids are getting more out of it.

And again, if I'm a parent, right, and I hear that, that's what I want to hear.

I, yeah, I want my kid to get better at basketball, but if they can get that other stuff now, we got something.

Well, and, and it's so much about process, leadership, process.

Because I mean, I, I trained for 10 years as a skill guy, you know, and wanting to be the best skill guy and saying, well, I was super skilled.

I taught myself how to do this, this and that.

Let me give you these skills, let me give you these skills.

But it's only as you grow as a leader where you start to comprehend what the real lesson is.

You know, it's almost, it's a God thing, really.

It's a, it's a form of revelation where you start to understand this is really about something way greater.

And so what I encourage parents is to always make sure whoever's speaking into your kid's life, make sure that their profile matches their Persona.

Because if it's somebody who hasn't really had the experiences and the pedigree and hadn't been through the fires and failed and survived, etc.

Etc.

If there's no process there, there's, they can really only speak to low level things.

As I was at one point, as we all were.

You know, you're, you're just trying to do it and make, make, make this much of an impact.

And then when you start to see the bigger picture, you're like, hold on in, in less than a month.

I mean, let's think about what you said.

If all you get out of the game of basketball is basketball, you've got very little.

But if you get one modicum of this transformation process, whether it's aggressiveness, work ethic, better nutrition, you've changed your life.

You've changed your life.

And so the reason that is important, because if me as a leader can do a great job at communicating that first and foremost to parents, then to players, now the outlook is completely different.

And I can't sit on that bench or come off that bench or be a secondary role player or maybe not even make the team.

And there's something I'm getting out of this.

This is all going forward a Process that is important for my child.

It changes the complete game because now it's not about you'll score 14 points and you're averaging 20.

And why did Coach Knots give you that?

Last three minutes of the game is completely different.

You know what I'm saying?

And so it's incumbent upon us as leaders to set the stage and to grow, first and foremost, do the work, to go through the process ourselves so that we can then usher the next generation through.

Really well said.

And I think it's something that when you look at the youth basketball, the high school basketball landscape, unfortunately, too often we see players, families that don't necessarily have that outlook, right.

They're focused on all those things that you just talked about that are just basketball, that are only basketball related and they don't see the bigger picture.

I often think of just the fact that, and I'm sure you see this too, that so often in the game of basketball, people and players and their families don't enjoy the moment that they're in.

They're focused on what's next.

If I'm a middle school player, I'm worried about what high school am I going to go to and when I'm going to.

When I'm going to be on the varsity.

And if I'm a JV player, I'm worried about when am I going to move up to the varsity.

And if I'm on the varsity, I want.

When am I going to be a star and if I'm this, when am I going to get my scholarship and this kid over here has got one and I don't.

And.

And instead of being in that and enjoying it, it's.

It's really.

And it's a hard thing to do.

I mean, you know that, that doesn't.

You have to really be intentional and think about what it is that you're doing.

But I so often see people who are in the moment and it should be a great moment, right?

You should be enjoying high school basketball or you should be enjoying middle school basketball.

And people get so caught up and worried about all this extraneous stuff.

That.

Sure.

Does it matter?

Yeah, it matters.

But the things that you're talking about, right, are things that they're not just going to matter when you're 17.

These are things that are going to matter when you're 40, when you're 50.

And those lessons that you take away from basketball, and you mentioned a bunch of them in terms of aggressiveness and work ethic and perseverance and all those things that When I think about what basketball gave me, those are the things that, yeah, I look back on my career fondly, both as a player and as a coach.

But I think more about how did it impact me in terms of what kind of person I became as a result of, of participating in the game of basketball.

And there's no question that somebody somewhere along the line, coaches, parents, whoever it was, poured into me that message and that impacted me.

It still impacted me today as a 55 year old man.

And to me there's nothing more powerful than being able to do that.

Jason.

No, for sure.

And let me first say that I was absolutely the worst at that.

Not only as a player, but even as a parent.

Like with my oldest son, I almost throw him from the game of basketball.

Again, most indelible moments are my failures, right?

And so as a seven year old when he's like showing some prowess at the ymca, I'm like, you got to play this kid two grades up.

Like, what are we waiting on?

Like, the pro contract is coming.

And so he goes up two grades and all of a sudden he can't get to the ball.

Nearly lost him.

Like it took three years to get him back to where he wanted to be engaged with the game.

Because I was one of those dads just looking at the extrinsic rewards, yelling and go get the ball, be aggressive, but not teaching anything.

I was the worst at that.

And so I think that we have to remember that the intrinsic rewards, although they're harder to gauge and to see, they're way more valuable.

And they are there.

They are there.

Whether we can touch them or whether intangible or tangible, they're there.

I just had a player who came to me as a junior at the end of his junior year.

For three years he did not make the high school team.

Now this is a, this is a kid who's 6 foot 3, shoot the ball athlete.

Like, I was flabbergasted, like, you didn't make your high school team.

Comes and works with me.

After his junior year, we get all the way up into the fall of last year, going into his senior year and we, we have already.

He makes the team.

Unbelievable.

He was happy.

Greatest thing ever.

Fast forward a month later.

He hasn't played in one game.

Like it's his senior year, he finally makes the team.

He's built his skill level up, he's athletic, he's gotten stronger.

Still a great shooter.

Cannot get minutes.

Like even I would come to his game.

And I'm like, I don't Know what to tell you.

It's not like they got players that's better.

Coach just isn't playing them.

Maybe he's going with the.

I don't know.

We continue to put in the work and we continue to coach the kid.

From the standpoint of this is all building something great within you.

Focus on the intrinsic, not the extra.

Because you could end up being a coach, you could end up being a trainer, you could end up being a Fortune 500 executive running your own business.

And these skills are going to be what separate you from others.

The fact that you can come into a hard situation, face disappointment every single day and still work like nobody's business, like that is a life skill.

And so for about five to six weeks, that's every single training.

Like we have to spend an hour afterwards just keeping him from crying.

You know, fast forward.

We get to about late January, he gets in a game late and the kid like rattles off seven threes.

So much so that.

And they lost.

But the coach from the other team was like, told his coach, I don't care what you do.

Like that kid needs to play like he's the only player you got.

That type of thing.

Kid ends up starting the rest of the year, averages like five three pointers made per game.

Ends up working his way into a collection college scholarship, 80% covered at the NAIA level.

And when I tell you, I.

It couldn't happen to a better kid, first of all.

Secondly, it's just the tip of the iceberg for the kid because he's a late bloomer.

But it's a great story about the ability of the kid and his parent to focus on the intrinsic part because had they stayed with that extransic part, and don't get me wrong, there was frustration there.

There were a lot of tears, like I said.

But at the end of the day, they made that the focus and it paid dividends.

And so it's hard.

I'm not saying it's not hard, but it's something that we, like I said, as leaders, have to do a better job communicating to the parents and the players.

There is no question, Jason, that what you just shared is something that we all struggle with.

And you sharing that you struggled with it.

I know that I struggled with it.

There are still moments today that I struggle with that, right, where you want your kid to play more, you want them to have a bigger role, you want this for them, things that they want, you want for them.

And like I know better.

You at some point knew or know better, right?

And yet we still, as people who are in it all the time, we still sometimes allow ourselves to get caught up in, as you said, those extrinsic things.

And yet, at the same time, I know that my son went through a couple difficult stretches during his high school career.

Now he's a sophomore in college.

And so last year as a freshman, played in like seven or eight games.

Didn't play very much and to be expected, but luckily he had a dad who, through the whole course of all those things, when you talked about, were there tears, were there, were we upset?

Were there moments?

Right?

Yeah, there was.

But through all that, we continue to have those same conversations that you just talked about.

Like, right, hey, there's a bigger picture.

There's something better coming for you down the road.

And maybe it's on the court here or maybe it's off the court there, or maybe it's at your next stop or it's the.

Whatever.

What are you learning from going through this adversity now?

Are you going to be a better person?

Can we make you a better person as a result of this adversity?

And yet it's so hard.

It's so hard.

It is so hard.

It is so hard to do that.

I tell people all the time, I never saw my parents more frustrated, like, more flabbergasted, like, just where they didn't have answers, right?

You go to your parents for answers.

And when I could see the look at their.

On their face, kind of like the look I had with this kid last year, like, I don't know what to tell you.

You should be right.

I don't know.

In my opinion, I'm a question.

And so it is so hard.

But I'm smiling as I hear you recant that story, relate that story, because.

Because that's what's going to make them like.

I remember those times.

I remember being, hey, I'm gonna transfer, and this is the worst thing ever.

And scored eight points in, like, five minutes last night.

Now, coach didn't play me at all.

And that just set the stage for me.

Like, I would not be where I am without those moments.

And so I'm.

I'm actually happy for him.

I'm ready for him because I know it's still gonna work out.

If you see, going through those type of situation, it really is.

It's.

It's one of those things that I then come back to.

My.

My next step of this conversation, or how I think about it in my own head is always, if it's this hard for Me, somebody who went through it as a player, myself, somebody who has been a coach, somebody who talks about things like this with people from all over the country that have knowledge, that share and all the conversations that I'm able to have.

And it's still incredibly difficult for me to be able to step back and do that encouragement thing and to be able to support.

And then I think about what about the mom or the dad that has no background in this and they don't have anybody to turn to.

And you can see how people get caught up and how they get frustrated and how they end up saying and doing things that end up being detrimental to their kid.

Yeah.

Because they just don't have the experience.

And to your point, it's so hard.

It's so hard to have those conversations and to remain positive and effectively.

Look, I just, like you said, I. I don't understand how you can't be playing.

It just doesn't.

Like, I. I cannot.

I cannot explain it.

It makes no.

It makes no sense to me.

And that's not really an answer that your kid or a player that you're working with necessarily wants to hear.

But then the next message has to become, well, if you don't work hard, what's that going to get you?

If you don't push through, what's that going to get you?

And the answer is nothing.

And you're going to learn a lesson that when things get tough, you give up.

And so as a parent or as a trainer or as a coach.

Right.

The messages, just like you said, can you work hard even when there isn't that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that you can see at this point.

Right.

There may not be 32 minutes a game waiting for you at the end of the rainbow at the end of that hard work, but there's something there.

And maybe you won't see it until you're 35 years old, but it's there, I promise you.

But those are hard conversations to have.

Jason.

Yeah, I've actually started a weekly call for parents just with my background is not only an athletic director, but obviously a trainer and a former athlete.

Just allows me to see it from.

From all angles.

I really, really adept at being able to coach other people.

You know, I wish.

I wish I could coach myself.

It's one of the reasons I don't coach.

And I choose to train because I know I can't trust myself when I get between those lines.

And so.

But I've become really adept at being able to see it from the coach's angle, being able to see it from the player's angle, being able to see it from the parents angle and give those parents some.

Some advice and some counsel, whether it be.

I mean, I. I just had one of my.

My best players who's one of the top girls athletes in the state.

She got cleared today from the oca.

And so being able to counsel them through transfer situations or nil, or even something as simple as, you know, we're not getting a play, like, what do we do?

Like, do we panic?

Is it time to make a move to the point where, you know, I've got journals that walk parents through the process and everything they need to consider when they're talking about trash time?

And so I developed kind of a nice being able to counsel parents and have these difficult conversations because nobody's having them.

And when you're not, parents are making rash decisions and making different erratic behaviors that impact the kids.

When it's like, hey, if we just take a breath here and think about this, there's always pretty much some options.

There's always something we can do in order to ameliorate this thing that we're going through.

And so I actually have gotten to where I love those conversations.

I love hearing, you know, what.

What athletes are going through, because I know what's on the other side of it.

I think parent education.

If there's one thing, if I could wave a magic wand over the basketball world to make it better, the ability to have conversations with parents to educate them on just what the landscape looks like.

Yeah.

What.

What is important, what is not important, what you should focus on, to me, that is the one thing.

And again, I know it's incredibly difficult because we have the way youth basketball is structured today in terms of club basketball and trainers and qualifications and all the things that go into sort of contributing to the.

The challenges that we see.

But if you could educate parents on, hey, when your kid is 8 years old, here's what should be important in their basketball life.

And then when they get to middle school, here's what should be important.

And so.

And you just keep having those conversations, it would allow everybody to just take a deep breath and relax and understand that there's multiple paths to getting where you want to go, both on the basketball floor, but also, as you've said many times in life.

Right.

And people just get so caught up that they end up making decisions that negatively impact their child, the player, and also have a negative impact on them, just their life.

Right.

We've all Seen the parents that are more stressed out than any player ever is there, you know, they're, they're going, they're going crazy.

And I can't, I, I can honestly say that there's been games and times I've sat in the stands and you know, just, you know, you're like, you're, you're like this, you know exactly, you know exactly what I'm saying.

And, and yet I still come back to like.

And I know better.

Yeah, and I know better and it still gets me.

And so I just think that parent education piece, what you're doing there is a tremendous service to those parents and families whether, whether they know it or not, even in the moment, because sometimes they may not even realize what a gift that you're giving them.

But man, that is such a gift to be able to educate people on what it is that they need to be focused on and why again, that bigger picture beyond just skills and drills is so important.

Yeah.

When we set out and we started the company, that's why we named it JP3 because it's actually the P stands for the psychology, which is the mindset piece we talked about earlier, the performance, obviously the skills.

And the third P is parenting because that's the third leg in the puzzle.

You know what I'm saying?

And your parents can make you or break you.

You know, from a standpoint of that consistency, that commitment, kind of like I said with my dad, that support, that accountability is huge.

Or sometimes it's the, the negative voice, it's sometimes the, the sense of urgency on things.

And so there's, there's a drag down type element, a negativity element that parents can sometimes unbeknownst to them, be giving off to their, to their athlete.

And so, and we've seen it, I know you as a coach, you've seen it ruin teams, even just that dynamic.

So just helping parents has been one of the most fulfilling things for me because I know it helps so many others down the line from players to coaches to complete organizations are different.

When you can get the hold of that one stakeholder.

How much connection do you have to.

If you're working with a high school player, do you have, try to make a connection with their high school coach to kind of try to get on the same page with that coach.

Where are you in terms of that communication?

Well, from time to time I do.

It's, it's easy for me obviously, as being a former athletic director and a player in the area.

So I'm, I have a lot of natural relationships that allow me to do that.

But I don't do it that often, only when there's an issue and we just can't really get to the end of it within our logic.

And so there have been times that we had an athlete last year who was a starter, but she just wasn't getting a minute to seem like every single mistake she was getting her taken out.

Her coach was actually one of my longtime buddies.

We used to play a lot of pickup ball together back in the day, battled in high school.

And he does a great, great job with his program.

And so he was open to me calling and just asking some questions about what it was he was seeing and how I could best help her as far as communicated and what he wanted from her on the floor.

And of course I'm able to also go back on that other end and infuse that aggressiveness piece because one of the things we know is coach talk is generalized.

And so there's an element of equity, there's an element of everybody's the same, but we all know out on that core, nobody's the same.

No one player plays the same role as any other player.

So I think I've become really adept and it's really been value to our clients to be able to get kind of that, okay, this is what coach is saying, but this is how that, how and why that matters to you, you know what I'm saying?

Kind of that what you probably do with your son and that, that, that behind the scenes element of hey, I know what coach is saying and he's absolutely right, it's coming from a good place.

But this is how I want you to actually hear it and this is how I want you to actually go out and use that information.

So I think that's something that's been helpful for all of our athletes.

Yeah, it makes sense.

When you got started, what was the hardest part of starting the business?

Forget about the basketball side of it and the planning and all the things that we talked about, but just from a sheer, okay, I've been working this on the side.

I'm going to go full time.

What was the hardest part of turning it into a full time business?

Well, I think successful businesses cater to their ideal clientele, right?

They have a specific market niche that they answer, a specific problem that they resolve.

And so as a side hustle guy, I was a generalist.

You know, just bring me your kids, I'm going to get them better.

And then when it morphed into this, hey, we're Going to go after the mindset, we're going to go after the transformation and everything else is going to be included for that in that it gave me a really specific lane to run in and a specific avatar of an ideal client.

And so at that point it became hard because you have so many others that you're already dealing with from your generalist days.

And so kind of having to either put them in this pot or kind of say, hey, it's not going to work out because you know, as a, as a basketball guy, we want to help everybody.

Like you see potential in every single kid.

But then I started to notice the characteristics of the kids that got the most and the families that got the most of what we were doing.

First of all, they had a white hot commitment, like they had that focus element as far as they had a goal they wanted to get towards.

They were very clear in that.

Second of all, they were very much in tune with their athlete, meaning they knew their athletes deficiencies from a skill set.

They knew where their athletes were as a mindset and they knew where they were in their character, whether that be work ethic or body language or any of those things.

And so that's the reason for the calls now because I can, I can glean that in the course of 15, 20 minutes how well they know their athlete and how committed they are.

And then it's like it's go time.

I don't care where you are.

I rate every player on a five star scale from somebody who's off the team, to somebody who's on the bench, to somebody who's a role player, to somebody who's a starter, to somebody who's a star for their team.

And I don't care where you are on that system.

If you've got those two elements that I mentioned earlier, we're going to help you climb like it's inevitable.

You know, it's just a life circumstance.

If you have those types of things and you have that commitment and then you get the right support and structure like you're going to succeed.

So that was the biggest thing, is kind of separating the ones that it would work the most for and the ones that would make the get the largest impact from those who maybe not, not as much.

Yeah, that's a really good point in terms of thinking about the generalist who just grabs, hey, I'm grabbing this kid, I'm grabbing this kid, I'm grabbing this kid too.

Now suddenly I'm focused in on here are the clients that I can best work with.

That are gonna get the most out of what I'm doing, but also I'm gonna be able to pour my best into them because they're going to be receptive to it.

And then that makes everybody's job easier.

When we're all on the same page, nobody's fighting this way or that way.

Everybody's trying to row that proverbial boat in the same direction.

So let me ask you this final two part question, Jason.

So you look at where you're at today, right?

You're a couple months into a full time training business.

So question number one, when you look ahead over the next year or two, what do you see as being your biggest challenge?

And then the second part of the question, obviously you left a different career as an athletic director.

Now you're here, what gives you the most joy about what you do on a daily basis?

So your biggest challenge and then your biggest joy.

Great question, man.

So I think a lot about this, but I just think as far as challenge, it's going to be thinking too small, right?

Because a lot of times in, when you get into, whether it be your basketball career and, and, and you get out of your city, you know, you get on an AU circuit or you get on the college level and you're starting to see, man, there's this whole world out there like there I'll never forget.

My college coach was actually Bill Sell and he recruited me when he was at the University of Tulsa.

From that time I was a temporary and all of a sudden around early in my 12th grade year, my name beginning abuzz and I started to get some national attention.

Some Notre Dame, some Arkansas, some of those can call in and coach Shelf said, hey, remember you're a six two guard that weighs 165 pounds.

You're a diamond does like there are a lot of yous out there, right?

And so that's kind of like the, the prevailing notion not only as a basketball player, like you start to realize like there's this big world out there and I'm just a small fish, but also even in the school context because often schools and programs are framed more so on their limitations than their expectations.

And so what this does is it gives you where you're, you're constantly thinking worst case versus best case.

And the reason I call this a challenge is because obviously I've got this unique skill set, obviously I've got this unique background.

How can I potentially impact the most people?

Like not just in my city, not just in my state, not just in nationwide, but worldwide Even what is that thing?

I mean, that's why even being on a platform like this is huge because you never know who's listening.

You never know what opportunities are available out there.

And so for me, the biggest challenge is not holding myself back, you know, not.

Not holding myself or according to my limited beliefs as far as the biggest thing that just the biggest love, the biggest win.

For me, it's always transformation.

It's always going to be transformation because I don't care what it is when a kid learns a skill or they open up a new area of their aggressiveness and their mindset.

I've got a kid who's in ninth grader now who when he came to me six months ago, like he couldn't shoot the same shot twice, right?

He is not a knock me on shooter right now, but he's super consistent in his mechanics and he doesn't understand.

But that's a huge transformation, right?

And it may be six months from now where he sees the benefit of that, but his life is forever changed because he now has awareness and the ability to effectuate change based on that awareness like that.

So.

And like I said, sometimes others don't see it yet.

You know, his dad may call me like, man, he, he missed five threes tonight.

I'm like, don't worry about it.

It's part of it.

Steph Curry misses, right?

But he's so much better already.

And so when I see those little things, I'm always just fired up, man.

And it keeps me going.

Well said.

And I think it speaks to the entire conversation that we had, right.

About having an impact on people and using the game of basketball as the tool to be able to do that.

Before we wrap up, Jason, I want to give you a chance to share how can people connect with you?

Find out more about what you're doing.

Share your social media, your website, your email, whatever you feel comfortable with.

Then after you do that, I'll jump back in and wrap things up for sure.

Well, people can get with me at JP_3training on any socials from YouTube to Instagram and Facebook, LinkedIn.

We also, like I mentioned, our YouTube channel is chock full of great videos for kids who work out on their own because that is a huge skill set to just be able to pick up a ball and be motivated enough to go out there on their own.

So we want to provide the support where when they do that, there are no questions.

They know exactly what they need to be doing.

So check out our YouTube channel also.

You can email me at jp3trainingmail.com so I'd love to connect.

Perfect.

Jason, cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule tonight.

Really appreciate it.

And to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode.

Thanks.

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