Transcription
Imagine this. You get in the zone. You're starting to roast somebody. And as you come down the floor, you start singing to them. You're so dominant, you're in such control that you're gonna sing to them just to get in their head even more, just to punish them a little bit more. That it's so easy, you can sing a song to him while you're doing it. Sounds crazy, right?
Well, it turns out that Michael Jordan, often when he got in the zone, was singing to his opponents. Yeah, you heard that right. Michael Jordan would sing to his opponents. A former NBA player named RaShawn McLoyd said in an interview, "I just remember stories of Jordan singing to guys when he was playing. His number one song was 'Giving You the Best That I Got' that's by Anita Baker. I remember him singing that to Jerry Stackhouse one day and just putting on a show. It was like he had a concert going on in his own head."
I thought this was fascinating because I started to do some research on the flow state and the types of music you listen to. Now, I do think it's different for each individual. You can find certain types of music, maybe it's upbeat, that put you in the zone. And somebody else needs classical music that's a little bit slower. Some people want rap, some people want R&B. However, I'm not completely convinced that's true. Not completely convinced.
I've had some younger athletes give this a try. They were listening to rap before they went out to play. And I told them, I said, "I want you to switch it up and listen to classical or listen to R&B. And I want to see if you play different. If it puts you in a different sort of rhythm when you're playing something that's smooth, a bit more melodic, and not as repetitive as maybe a rap song is as far as the beat goes. Something that has a little bit more flow to it. And see if you play better." And so far, every athlete's told me they won't go back to rap music. Now, before a game, they still like it. But before a game, they like listening to the smooth R&B.
And I had one athlete tell me that this song was kind of in their head as they were playing. And he didn't know Jordan was singing songs while he played. There's something about certain rhythms that seem to lend itself more to the flow state. And I think music, if you pick the right music, music that isn't as hard and maybe as fast as hip-hop, puts you in sort of a flow state more easily. It's well-known, or at least well-reported, that Jordan doesn't like hip-hop except Jay-Z. When you watch Jordan float through the air, there is something that, there's this weird parallel between the type of music he liked and the way he moved.
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And I have to say, when I watch basketball, I see a lot of herky-jerky. There's not a lot of graceful athletes anymore. They don't really have the fluidity that you would, that you want to see when you watch anything. I love gracefulness in everything. I, in every athletic endeavor, I want to see gracefulness. You know, my, my friend's a really popular dancer in New York City, relatively well-known. And she did hip-hop for a while. Now she does Latin dance. And she said that she has ballerinas come. And the ballerinas try to do hip-hop dance. And they can perform the moves, but they lack the groove. They lack that thing that makes it look and feel authentic. So, and it's same vice versa. It's hard for someone who's done hip-hop their whole life to go into ballet and have that graceful fluidity. It's very, you know, it's a different sort of mentality. When you're dancing, your body gets kind of wired a certain way to move a little sharper than maybe you do in ballet. And vice versa.
Now, I've been thinking about maybe certain positions, you should try different types of songs. Maybe if you're a big man, rap or heavy metal or something like that would work. And this works for other sports as well. Like if you're an O-lineman, maybe you want rap and you want the heavy, hard-hitting stuff. If you're on defense in football, maybe you want that. Golf, you probably want something a little more fluid. This is all preliminary speculation. And my studies in air quotes are just with a few athletes who I've worked with. And you guys can go try this and report back. Let me know in the comments section. Also, if I really want to know, this isn't like a gimmick to get the YouTube algorithm to pick, pick, uh, pick up the video. But really, have you guys used music in different ways? I'm curious to find out.
So anyways, listen to the type of, I'm gonna end this video with the type of music Jordan listened to. And compared to the type of music most guys listen to, is there a link there to his gracefulness and his domination and his ability to get in the zone by having this sort of music? I want to end on that domination point because I've noticed in rap music, I don't know about you guys, I notice it. It puffs up my ego a little bit. It's a very prideful genre. You know, "You mess with me, you're gonna get slaps." That sort of thing. You know, um, in R&B, it's usually not as egotistical. And this is coming from everybody who loves rap music. I'm just saying, maybe it takes your eye out of it enough so you don't overtry. And you get into a flow state where the eye sort of doesn't completely disappear, but the conscious mind calms down a little bit. And the subconscious comes through more fully. So, just some ideas for you to think about.
I mean, listen, as time goes on, more people are going to train their mind. More people are going to get great skill training. Competition is going to keep improving. What's going to separate you from the competition is the ability to find little separation points, little things you can do to just get slightly ahead of the competition. And over the course of a game, over the course of a season, over the course of four or five years, those little gains add up and make you a superior player. Maybe help you get to the next level, whatever the next level is for you.
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Ain't there something I can't give you in exchange for everything you give to me?
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The scales are sometimes
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And I tell you now that
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Baby