Thrive with Trevor Huffman

Matt McQuiad is a professional basketball player for Fraport Skyliners of the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) in Germany. He played his college basketball for the Michigan State Spartans.

Trevor & Matt discuss Matt's career at Michigan State, his training regimen, his experience playing professionally in Germany, mental toughness, and more!

Twitter - @mattblast3

Libby Rapin is a wanderer at heart, date lover (as in the food!), personal growth enthusiast and Chopra Center Certified Coach. After feeling like her life was spinning out of control due to a myriad of personal, work and health related circumstances, she began exploring medicinal treatments that focused on both the mind AND body. Libby began a daily mindfulness practice, primarily focused on meditation, and soon realized its powerful healing effects. 

Libby is now on the adventure of a lifetime, exploring the world, discovering her purpose, deepening her spirituality, immersing herself in new cultures and expanding her knowledge of the mind body connection. Her mission is to help individuals experience more joy, love and compassion by creating awareness about the benefits of mindfulness and the negative effects stress has on the body, both physically and emotionally.

Website - https://www.somethingbeautiful.co/

Email - [email protected]

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/itissomethingbeautiful

The Life of a Pro Overseas Basketball Player: JJ Mann

Get into the mind, personal growth routines, habits, and mindsets of ex-Belmont University star — JJ Mann — the humble guy that teaches us how to play basketball and get a six pack at the same time.

The 6'7 basketball shooting wizard is from Belmont University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. This is about a small forward that is making the most of his revival into overseas basketball, and I can tell you this, JJ Mann is one of the best overseas trash talking, ping-pong butt-whipping, quickest-hands-stealin’ basketball player East of the Mississippi.

Aaron Miller has been the head trainer of Elite Basketball Training for the past four years. He has had the opportunity to work with 9 NBA players, 6 McDonalds All-Americans, 7 NBA Draft Picks and 2 players who lead the country in scoring during their collegiate career.

Before Aaron started training, he finished his basketball career at Central Christian in Kansas as the leading scorer in the MCAC with 20.5 points per game. During his time in Kansas, he also earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Management.

Some of the NBA/Pro players Miller has trained include Damyeon Dotson from the New York Knicks, Wesley Iwundu from the Orlando Magic, Josh Gray from the New Orleans Pelicans, Jonathon Simmons, Isaiah Taylor, The Harrison Twins, D’Angelo Harrison, Rob Gray, Terran Petteway, and LJ Rose.

In this episode Trevor and Aaron discuss some of the finer points of basketball training and dive into how Aaron started his training business.

Twitter - @EBTMiller

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/elitebballtraining/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/elitebballtraining/

Email - [email protected]

On this episode of Thrive with Trevor Huffman:

Trevor speaks with pro athlete, Larry O’Bannon. We talk about how Rick Pitino taught Larry how effort and results should be viewed. How parents fail their kids by allowing them to feel entitled to playing time. What the difference between pro mindset and an amateur mindset is and more! O'Bannon played college basketball for the University of Louisville's Louisville Cardinals in 2005 when they made it to the 2005 Final Four. In that tournament O'Bannon was named the Regional MVP.

Pro career

O'Bannon went undrafted in the 2005 NBA draft. During the summer of 2005, he played for the Seattle SuperSonics and the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Summer League and in 2007 played for the Denver Nuggets in the 2007 summer league. He played pro hoops from 2005-2020.

2:05: Mr. Basketball of Kentucky…. When could you dunk?

4:18: Going from local to national AAU scale- from the big fish in the small pond, to small fish in the big pond?

6:00 What Rick Pitino told Larry he would do to make him a pro

8:00: What’s the difference between the pro and amateur mindset?

13:55: How do you handle social media and time management in modern society?

17:00: Player advice on motivation to get the next level. Who’s Reece Gaines? Dane Fife?

21:52: Parent entitlement can be passed from parents to kids—what’s the point of sports?

23:00: Rick Pitino on entitlement and shifting Larry’s mindset on being a pro

28:00: Why Larry saw a sports therapist at Louisville and why sports teaches us resilience if we let it

31: 25: What mental training did Larry O’Bannon do?

38:38: How to mimic players the NBA to improve— Ray Allen to 

40:10: How to study film so you can score more points, get more assists, and play the mental game

46:50: How to improve your floater or 1v1 game in 5v5 and offseason

49:15: Getting cut from the NBA, bouncing back after Supersonics and The Warriors say no thanks

52:39: Amor Fati and Stoicism in sports. Appreciate the moment, the good and the bad.

Website - https://anchor.fm/larry-obannon

Twitter - @LarryOBannon

Ryan Stock is the founder of MindSport, author of Buddha Was A Baller, and a former NCAA college basketball player and college basketball coach of over 15 years. His experiences as a coach and player led him to start the athlete meditation app, MindSport, which in turn led to the writing of the book Buddha Was A Baller.

It was the difficult times in particular that led to Stock wanting to help athletes and coaches to live healthier, more successful and fulfilling lives. Stock himself experienced struggles with anxiety, frustration, dealing with difficult times, and in remaining present in his life as an athlete and coach before finally resigning from athletics and starting the journey that led him to find mindfulness and meditation. Meditation is the practice that Stock now utilizes daily in his life while showing other athletes and coaches how to implement practice in their lives.

Aside from writing and developing the content and recording sessions for the MindSport app, Stock also works one on one with college and professional athletes and organizations as an athlete meditation mentor.

Stock most recently completed his Yoga Teacher Training through Jonny Kest in 2019 and now teaches athlete meditation and Yoga to elite level NCAA universities and professional athletic organizations all across the country.

·       How do NBA and top pro athletes practice mindfulness and meditation?

·       The 10,000 Hour Rule— why quality matters than quantity

·       How self-awareness and non-judgement matters for athletes

·       Why Basketball athletes fail to slow down their mind and focus

·       How does MindSport app, the app for athletes to help focus, mindfulness, processing emotion, and beating your monkey mind

·       Why do athletes have melt downs and what do to about it?

Website - https://mymindsport.com/

Twitter - @mymindsport

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mymindsport/

Email -

Dr. John R.L. Evans is the Director of Mental Conditioning at BLND Health. He is also a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC).

Along with a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology, John earned a doctorate in Kinesiology – Sport and Performance Psychology from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Working alongside a wide range of athletes and elite performers, John also worked 7 years with U.S. Army Special Operations Forces (SOF), training mental performance and human engagement skills.

John sees clients for mental skills development for performance in sport (and other areas) in Ann Arbor, Royal Oak, and Kalamazoo, Michigan. He’s also available for virtual coaching wherever you’re based.

1:22 min: Who is Dr. John Evans and why will he help your athletes?

4:51 min: The Crux of Sports- The crux of mental performance, “Where is your attention and can you control where your attention is?”

6:40 min - The language for parents to use with Kids 

8:55 min - Why we don’t need to say get your head out of your butt! 

12:42 min - Why thoughts and habits matter don’t and do matter

17:53 min- Why values matter more than goals

21:44 min - Which self are you (hint there are two)

24:40 min - How to beat performance anxiety 

29:25 min- What is your daily mindfulness practice and what is it? 29.25min

33:05 min- Individual zones of optimal functioning

35:17 min- Why women should not feel bad about aggressiveness

36:15 min- How to ooze sport confidence

Website - https://blndhealth.com/

Email - [email protected]

Twitter - @sportpsychjohne

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/blndhealth/

Coming soon, a new podcast from the Hoop Heads Podcast Network, Thrive with Trevor Huffman will take you on a deep dive into the lives, routines, habits, and mindsets of the world's best and brightest, whether they're mental performance coaches, leadership professors, pro basketball players, NBA or WNBA skills trainers, or thought-leading sports psychologists.

Thrive will help you find the edges of your comfort zone so you can start to thrive.