WHAT I LEARNED FROM PHIL HANDY

Sunday 08/06/2025

"I was very fortunate enough to spend half a day with 3 x NBA Champion Phil Handy in London, July 2017.

It was a pleasure to observe him teach a group of players dribbling sequences and combinations. We then had a period of time where we sat down with him and asked him questions.

The main things I took away from this event were his comments on Kobe Bryant and Lebron James' work ethic.

He said that to get to the top and to stay there, it's all about mental fortitude. Kobe Bryant has talked a lot about this with his Mamba Mentality.

Check out this quick video:

I, by no means, have reached the level of success that Kobe Bryant has reached, but what I would add (and this is something that Kobe has said many other times in other videos), is that you must love what you do.

Scientifically this makes sense, since 'the heart is about 100 times stronger electrically and up to 5000 magnetically' than the brain.

Gregg Braden highlights this in the following short video:

So, simply put, I believe we must use our heads to follow our hearts.

Nobel Prize winner William Butler Yeats said: 'The only business of the head in the world is to bow a ceaseless obeisance to the heart.'

Sufi mystic and poet Rumi also said: 'Only from the heart can you touch the sky'.

So, if you're trying to increase your vertical jump, make sure you follow your heart. 😉

Good luck on your basketball journey!"

Samuel Cricelli