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One of the most in-demand basketball shooters in the world, Lethal Shooter aka Chris Matthews shares some life lessons for the court or the library.
Lethal Shooter aka Chris Matthews works with top NBA and WNBA athletes to perfect their shooting and earned his nickname for the countless records he set through a career which took him to Canada, France, Russia and China.
Lethal Shooter’s philosophy for shooting, for basketball and for life offers a model for how we can approach study, exams and pressure.
Head behind the scenes to meet Lethal Shooter by watching Matthews's in Life & Basketball: The Rise of Lethal Shooter in the video player above.
“I wasn’t always who I am now,” said Lethal Shooter, who grew up in the Washington D.C. area.
“It took years and years of development and consistency and muscle memory, of every day seeing my vision, keeping my mind clear, keeping the right friends around me, staying away from negative people… and staying away from drugs and alcohol.”
In his Hoops Passport video series with Chloe Pavlech on Red Bull TV, Lethal Shooter travelled to Atlanta, New York City and his very own Washington D.C. to see how basketball has shaped the people and culture in those cities.
His motto of “staying locked in”, staying absolutely focused and resolute comes from his own personal experience.
“When you play a sport, especially a sport like basketball, because it takes so much consistency, what you put out is what you get.”
How much effort we give out not only builds our skills – it gives us consistency. An exam, like a basketball quarter is short – but it’s the opportunity we are given to show what we can do. If we are consistent, we can be confident and limit the pressure we heap on ourselves.
“The good thing about anything in life is that when you are consistent at it, you start to become great,” he said.
Keeping distractions at bay is also key – for performing on a basketball court or studying in the library. One of the top skills Lethal Shooter has mastered is compartmentalisation. In a recent episode of Mind Set Win, he shared the benefits of this skill and how he honed it over time. Listen to the episode below.
The 38-year-old sees the major difference for youngsters today as being “the pressures of social media, instant gratification, the pressure of being perfect, the pressure of having others view you a certain way just to be cool.”
A lot of kids fear failing but you have to realise that failure is part of your greatness
He urges people to surround themselves with positive people, people who will believe in them. “I feel like now the kids, the level of depression is higher, the level of trying to be perfect is higher, and that just leads to a lot of kids fearing failure, but you have to realise that failure is part of your greatness. There is nobody in the world that just became great. There is nobody that just woke up, and they were just amazing. They have to work at it, they have to work at their craft.”
“Usually in life, when failure does kick in, the success is right behind it if you don’t quit.”
The reason I wanted to get into coaching was that all the mentors that helped me, they really motivated me
“My whole career as an athlete past middle school, I was helping friends and family members and people that I didn’t know. I was helping them with shooting.”
Being a coach was never something he considered, though, because he was so focused on playing. Thinking about all the people who helped Lethal Shooter grow in his career made him realise he wanted to give back to others.
“The reason I wanted to get into coaching was that all the mentors that helped me, they really motivated me."
Lethal Shooter was determined to get into coaching because he wanted to pass on the energy and motivation his mentors had given him when he was growing up in a neighbourhood. where drugs and violence, and gun crime were rife.
“As they were coaching me, they motivated me to be a better person. So I was like, ‘I would love to be a coach because there is nothing better than to help others master a craft and stay motivated in what they do in life’. My mentors were Simeon (school), my dad, Delonte Taylor, Craig Hodges, those people really instilled in me to keep going harder, and my mum - pushing me to understand that you can do anything you put your mind to.”
When it comes to coaching, Lethal Shooter trains men and women the same way. "It’s the same type of philosophy. I push the female players as hard as I push the male players. They are no different. And a lot of female athletes respect that training."
Lethal Shooter is one of the most sought-after skills coaches in the world because his coaching style delivers results. Living abroad and playing basketball really contributed to his techniques as a coach. Exercising in new ways and having a different diet than he was used to pushed him outside of his usual routine. His experiences as a player shaped him into the successful coach he is today.
“Basketball has helped me to understand what life is about. If it wasn’t for basketball, I don’t think I would be the person I am today.”
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