The 24-Hour Athlete
Introducing my latest book, 20 Hacks for the 24-Hour Athlete, written for serious youth athletes looking for an edge beyond more grinding.
Roughly a year ago, I traveled to Copenhagen from Poland to catch up with a few former players, watch a former player’s game, and conduct a coaching clinic. My first night, I met my teenage point guard from my 2013-14 men’s team for a burger in the old Meatpacking District.
The 2013-14 team is semi-famous, as SABA: The Antifragile Offense is based largely around that season. I coached a men’s team in a small fishing village in the heart of handball country and near the rowing federation’s home base. There were not enough local players to support a basketball club, so the club started a basket college at the high school, which attracted non-local players. The basket college program was essentially two extra small-group workouts per week and an opportunity to play senior basketball while finishing high school and living in a dorm behind the gym. We had nine players aged 15 to 18 officially in the basket college: Four girls and five boys.
My original travel plans were foiled, as I wanted to meet another former basket-college player and travel to Aarhus and eat at the famous restaurant where the point guard was a chef. Instead, he had his family visit him in Vietnam where he works rather than traveling home, and I realized Aarhus is much further from Copenhagen than I had remembered. Therefore, it was just the two of us catching up, as I primarily listened as he recounted his journey to become a chef.
He mentioned a pamphlet — The 24-Hour Athlete —I had given to the players as a guidebook to success. I first heard the term The 24-Hour Athlete from athletic development pioneer Vern Gambetta, and the concept stuck. I wrote about the 24-Hour Athlete previously and included concepts from the pamphlet in other newsletters, including articles about creatine use for adolescent boys and the dangers of energy drinks. One boy wanted to add weight and asked if he should use creatine, and our two oldest players downed multiple energy drinks on our drives to games, which prompted those investigations.
As one might imagine, nine teenagers living on their own did not have the best habits. I created the pamphlet to guide them toward better behaviors based on the idea they were there to pursue professional basketball (one player eventually was drafted by the WNBA, and one of the boys still plays semi-competitively in Bulgaria). The pamphlet used the idea of the 24-Hour Athlete to introduce habits they should develop to improve their current performances, as some were starters and important rotation players on the men’s and women’s teams, and to enhance their future opportunities and development.
The pamphlet was five or six pages with very basic information on the importance of sleep, nutrition, hydration, and flossing. The point guard mentioned reminiscing with a few of the other boys about how the pamphlet had the answers, but they ignored the lessons then, as teenagers are wont to do. However, as adults, they saw the value and embraced some of the habits.
When I returned to Poland, I searched for the old files, edited and updated them, and gave the pamphlet to my team last year. When I finished the season and moved back to the United States, I began adding to the original pamphlets to create 20 Hacks to the 24-Hour Athlete.
These are not short-term social media hacks to elicit likes and followers. The book combines the original habits with some other ideas I have searched for and shared with players over the past few seasons from my junior-college women’s players through last season’s adolescent boys. Rather than continuing to flip through old files and/or research journals, I combined the ideas into a single book to help serious players achieve their goals.
The book is not revolutionary. Every athlete knows he or she should eat better, more nutritious food and sleep more. The book is not rocket science. For the most part, I wrote the book to have a single document to give future players. I published the book because I imagine other players may benefit. Most children and adolescents will chase more Instagram-worthy hacks just as my point guard ignored the hacks when they could have helped his basketball career, only realizing their importance in adulthood when pursuing an equally-demanding career. Hopefully, the ideas assist a few players who have goals, not just dreams, and are searching for more ways to improve beyond simply practicing more, playing harder, and grinding. Everyone practices, but practice alone is insufficient. Be a 24-Hour Athlete!
Congratulations, Brian. Will buy a copy at the end of the month.