Hey! Welcome back 🤝

Happy Motion Monday! I hope you’re having a great start to your week. Appreciate you for tapping in with edition #69.

In today’s edition, we have an exciting new interview and the mug giveaway! Let’s go!

Here’s what’s also on the menu today:  

• Affirmation of the Week 💭

• What’s the Game Plan? 📈 

• FREE GAME from JuJu Griffith 🗣️

• Pre-Order the The Magic is in the Motion Hat 🧢

• The Motto Mug Giveaway (scroll to the bottom for details) ☕

Thanks for reading! In case you missed it, catch up on the last newsletter, Lessons from 2025 Pt. 1.

And if you’re not already, tap in with us on IG @BallClubCo.

As always,
Blessings, peace, love, and good vibes

AFFIRMATION OF THE WEEK

I move forward with confidence and faith.

WHAT’S THE GAME PLAN?
25 Lessons Learned in 2025 Pt. 2

Here is part 2 of the 25 lessons I learned in 2025.
I hope some of these resonate with you.

13. Time really does fly
“It’s just 30 minutes” can turn into hours of a whole lot of nothing.
30 minutes might not feel like much, but 30 minutes a day for one month is 15 hours. I realized that whether it’s 30 minutes of getting better or 30 minutes of staying the same, those minutes add up. One moves you forward. The other one doesn’t.

14.”God speaks to us through thoughts.”
I heard this quote after watching a podcast and it made me think: if God put this idea in my mind, and I can’t stop thinking about it, then He must want to see me follow it through.

15.Fail fast af
The more you fail, and the faster you fail, the quicker you get to succeed. This was one of the biggest mistakes I made in my journey. I kept thinking and saying, “I don’t want to fail” or “I want to get this perfect.” And because of that, I never actually tried all the things I wanted to try.
I didn’t realize how much that was hindering my chances of succeeding. I’ve watched many podcasts, and everyone who has succeeded says there’s no way around this, you have to be patient and fail many times in order to succeed.
My goal for 2026: try new things, fail more, fail fast.

16. Stay ready for God’s blessings
A lot of times, we ask and ask and ask God for an opportunity. Then the opportunity we’ve been waiting for shows up, and we get scared or feel not ready. But think about it this way: if we weren’t ready, God wouldn’t send us the opportunity.
Stay ready because your blessing might show up at any moment.

17. On Friendships
“Surround yourself with people who fight for you in rooms you’re not in.”
I don’t think we can truly consider someone a friend
if they don’t defend you when you’re not around.
Real friends are those who have your back when you’re not in the same room.

18. Share Your Work
Put your work out there because you never know who you’re helping. I was debating whether to do the 30-Day Affirmations Challenge. I went back and forth, thinking, “Who the hell wants to get an email for 30 days straight?” To my surprise, over 100 people signed up for the challenge. I’ve received messages from people saying they’re grateful and sharing how it’s been helping them.
The point is, you never know who you’re impacting, so just put it out and hit post..

19. F*ck Fear
Fear of failure is not actually what we fear. What we fear is how people react to our failures or what people will say and think. So what we do instead is not act at all. The fear of what people will say can be greater than fear itself. That’s a terrible way to live. How shitty is it to live life on other people’s terms, to constantly focus and worry about how they feel about us?
And then we lie to ourselves and say, “I don’t care what people think about me,” but we know deep down it’s not true. It’s not true, because if it was true, we would spend more time trying new things and chasing our most authentic selves.

20.On Listening
You can learn something new from anyone you meet, whether they are older, younger, more experienced, or less experienced. It’s important to be a good listener. Sometimes, a conversation doesn’t have to be back and forth. Sometimes a conversation is simply listening to the other person.

21.Information Overload
There’s so much information out there that it’s easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start. One thing I’ve found helpful is focusing on following one person’s advice for a while, one book, one podcast, or one mentor. If you try to follow everyone at once, you end up confused and stuck. Stick with one source long enough to take action and see results before moving on to another.

22. On Ideas
Throughout the day, you’ll probably have many ideas. If you’re like me, you can’t rely on your memory all the time. One thing I’ve started doing is writing ideas down in my notebook or on my Notion app. I started doing this this year when I realized I just can’t rely on my memory, there’s just too much going on.

23.On Coffee
There will be people who try to get you to stop drinking coffee,
avoid these people at all cost.

24.Track Your Wins/Lessons
Don’t wait until the end of the year to track and write down your wins or lessons learned. If you really think about it, there’s something new to learn every day. By the end of the year, you’ll realize how much progress you’ve made and how much you’ve grown.

25. Fck It.
My goal for 2026, is to go in with fck it attitude.
The post isn’t perfect? Fck it. post it.
My writing isn’t perfect? Fck it. post it.
My video isn’t perfect? Fck it. post it.
My idea might fail? Fck it. Try it.
I don’t know if it’ll work? Fck it. Do it anyway.
I’m nervous to say this? Fck it. Speak up.

That’s it. Those are the 26 lessons I learned in 2026.
Make sure to tune in on December 22th for the Q1 Game Plan of 2026!

Remember, 1% better every day, and small wins are WINS!

FREE GAME FROM JUJU

Meet Juwan “JuJu” Griffith, Founder and Owner of JuJu Performance.
JuJu’s journey started as a Division-I football player at Army West Point. He then discovered his passion for coaching in 2017. JuJu has trained athletes from junior high to the pros, bringing unmatched energy, detail, and purpose to every session.
We’re grateful he tapped in with us to share his story and provide some free game to the Ball Club community.

How did your journey as a performance coach begin?

My coaching journey started in College. I attended the United States Military Academy at West Point where I played Army Football. After a few years, and many concussions, I had to retire from ball but wanted to stay close to the team so I became a student assistant strength coach in 2017 where I started learning and growing.

Juwan, are you running Ball Club Co.?
NO! But I do self-proclaim being the Northeast Regional Manager of Ball Club Co. though.

When did you become passionate about sports and training?
This sounds cliche but I’ve always been passionate about sports. My brother had me in the gym since I was 8 years old learning how to train because he was a trainer himself when he was younger. Since then, my passion just grew more and more where I actually started diving into books about training and how to get athletes better (AND I HATED READING BEFORE!).

If I want to become a performance coach, what steps should I take?
Honestly, there is no right answer for this. Some people get their education first then get a job at a performance facility and learn more from there. Other coaches use their experiences and apply it to athletes they may have a close relationship to then build their notoriety. My personal opinion would be go intern/work for a coach who is recognized and a leader in the performance space. Learn what they do well (and what they don’t do well because you actually get more lessons out of that) and build your own personality around training that way.

What are the best workouts to do during the season?
SPRINT! Athletes should be sprinting even during the season. Max Velocity sprinting allows athletes to still maintain speed or even get faster during the season, bulletproofs their body with the amount of force they have to exert, and reduces the risk of soft tissue injuries. After that total body lifts twice a week at the very least. Athletes can maintain or even get stronger as the season progresses.

How does your training differ between high school, college and professional athletes?
This is going to sound very crazy but my training is not all that different between them. My coaching philosophy is to build a strong foundation in middle school and high school so when they get to college and pros, we can build on that foundation. But from an overall perspective, we sprint, jump, and lift with the focus being “how do we get faster?”. Athletes will find themselves on the court/field if they’re fast so I make it a mission to get them as fast (and bouncy) as possible.

How much should I be training as a high school athlete?
High school athletes should make it a mission to train CONSISTENTLY TWICE A WEEK! With everything a high school athlete has to do between school, homework, practice, skills training, personal life, family life, they can dedicate at the very least 2 hours a week to improving their bodies. BUT it is more about consistency than anything else. Consistently go to the gym twice a week for 3 months and let me know how much you changed.

What’s the biggest mistake athletes make during the season?
A few big mistakes I see with athletes during the season are
1.Not prioritizing sleep
2.Not prioritizing their nutrition
3.Not prioritizing strength training and sprinting

What are the best exercises for vertical?
This is a loaded question but I will give more 3 favorite exercises for vertical:
1.Bulgarian Split Squats
2.DB Squat Jumps
3.Vertical Jumps
You’re probably mad at the 3rd one but hear me out, practicing how to jump is just as, if not more important. Most athletes do not know how to jump properly so I advise learning how to jump toward a rim or on the vertec if possible.

How many rest days should a high school/college athlete have?
I personally do not like the term “rest” days. Rest Days insinuate that you sit back and do absolutely nothing. I prefer using the term Active Recovery Days. On Active Recovery Days, you are doing something to help your body feel better. These days are extremely low intensity and low impact sessions. These are days you do activities such as yoga, stretching and mobility, a long walk, a long run, etc. Most college athletes are training 3-4x a week for the most part so I would recommend performing your active recovery days on the days you do not have a training session. (if possible because most times college coaches dictate your training schedule).

What’s a phrase your athletes joke that you say way too much?
It’s not a phrase but my athlete swear I never work. Before training sessions they’ll text me, “Ju are you in the country? Or Ju are you working today or are you on vacation again?”
Listen, it’s called balance. If you see me outside, you didn’t.

What songs or music do you like to play while training athletes?
In this Trinidadian Owned Gym, you gonna hear Rap, Soca, House Music, maybe even RnB depending on my mood. SOMETIMES, I will take an athlete’s request depending on how I feel.

What workouts help the most with speed and explosiveness?
Two things come to mind off the top of my head, sprinting and competing against somebody else. If you are trying to be explosive against an opponent you need to practice live against somebody else.

What’s your “coach superpower”?
This is definitely the hardest question. The 2 words that come to the top of my mind are humility and empathy. Kids nowadays deal with a lot more than what I dealt with in high school (for example, Instagram just came out when I was a sophomore). Athletes are consuming a lot more media and I have seen that take a mental toll on them. So for me, I am humble enough to know that it’s not about me, it’s about them. I’m also empathetic to know while they do deal with a lot, shit still has to get them because at the end of the day, somebody else is working harder than you, so I still have to push you.

What are some values you live by as a coach/owner?
Some of my values are focus, discipline, humility, empathy, and fun, with fun being the biggest value for me. I really enjoy this job because the athletes make it fun and my success does not happen without them.

What’s your favorite part about being a coach and working with athletes?
My favorite part about this job is going to games and watching my athletes compete, ESPECIALLY BASKETBALL GAMES! One thing my athletes know is that I am going to circle a game on my calendar to watch them compete. The best games I enjoy are the ones where I train athletes from both teams and talk shit to both sides all game long.

What’s one mental or physical habit you think athletes should learn early?
One mental habit athletes should get into is writing 3 things they are grateful for every morning. Starting the day off with gratitude has personally set my days up for success and has been able to keep away a lot of negative energy for the most part. One physical habit I believe athletes should focus on is learning how to prioritize sleep and put their phones down 1 hour before bed.

What advice would you give to aspiring coaches?
Coaching is a grueling profession. It’s not easy and you will always be the first one they blame for failure. Have tough skin, continue to learn, don’t be reactive, have patience, and remember who you are doing this for.

What’s the most rewarding moment you’ve had as a coach?
Honestly, in my short time of coaching,
I have a lot of rewarding moments but my top 3 are,
Witnessing Dylan Harper get McDonald’s MVP
Training my best friend Eli Riley while he played for the Pittsburgh Steelers
Seeing my first class of athletes I trained all go play ball in college.

What’s next for you?
Can you share any new upcoming projects or ventures you’re excited about?
Right now, I am working with Les Spellman on building a basketball speed system that we can use to evaluate basketball players better, which is my next project right now. Outside of this big project, I am just continuing to support other coaches and people I connect with really well because seeing other people win builds everyone.

For more details on JuJu Performance head to: https://jujuperformance.com/

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