[music] There's one thing that all great shooters have in common, and that's complete control over their mechanics. That's not something you're born with. You have to practice it.
Being great in competition means relentlessly focusing on the small things. In this class, I'm going to show you my mechanics and how I structure the work that I do. You have to get in the gym and put a ball in your hands and work on your mechanics every single day.
If you can commit to doing that, you can be as great as you want to be. That was my walk. Heat.
Heat. Okay. >> Roll three.
>> Growing up, I was always the littlest guy on my team. Even now, I think I still am. And and so when I speak to those unders sized guys that are trying to find how how they can make an impact on the team, how they can be vocal leaders, you know, you can't lead by example.
You can be, you know, the hardest working guy on the team. Um, you know, the first one in, last one out type of mentality. Um, that underdog, you know, uh, kind of thought process is something that drove me for a very long time to prove, you know, naysayers wrong.
But mostly it's all based on the confidence that you have in yourself. You don't listen to um to what anybody says you can't do because you know that you can. Um it might be tough.
It might be, you know, you might have to overcome a lot more than the next guy next to you, but that's what makes it all worth it. You can impact, you know, people by how you approach your everyday. Um and that's something that I I still try to do.
There were two huge turning points in in my life. um when I kind of understood a lot about myself and and and the certain decisions that I made um I didn't necessarily regret them, but I it exposed me to my own kind of, you know, confidence and and thought process. And when I was a freshman, I didn't take a chance at at uh at trying out for the varsity team.
I felt a little scared, a little nervous, and I I I think I took the easy way out trying to play JV and not really, you know, putting myself uh out there and and and and shooting for the moon. And about halfway through my JV season, I I really regretted that decision because I feel like I I was good enough to play on the next level, but I didn't really have that belief to put that into action um when the time when the time mattered. And so I told myself I would never be timid about anything like that ever again.
And then, you know, fast forward to uh my senior year in high school, uh I wasn't getting recruited um as heavily as I thought I was supposed to. The waiting process trying to get recruited was was really stressful. Um it it really nagged at me pretty much every day.
Um it drove me to work hard. Um but then when you know I didn't have any patience then I I was I was getting frustrated with the process because um I felt like the time that I had put in and and my own belief in my game at that point wasn't being reflected in and uh and the and the scholarship offers and and the attention from the big time division one schools and none of it worked out. And so, um, it wasn't a great feeling, but when I was able to pick a school in Davidson, a real small school, nobody knew about him from a basketball standpoint, that I was able to create my own my own journey and my own story.
Um, and understanding the power and the beauty in that, uh, embracing it. It taught me patience. It taught me to appreciate the opportunity you have and that, um, everything happens for a reason.
Um, and to embrace whatever your story is. And, uh, the rest is history. I'm Stephen Curry and this is my master class.
