Summary: Long post about Kobe and why you must be extreme in your methods. This post focuses on his training regiment post-injuries where he's basically using every second in his day to try to "beat" his expiring biological clock, for nothing other than pride.

"Decent" or "good" efforts are never going to set you apart. If you dream of making "moderately good" money or enjoying top 80%er success with women, then you don't need to bother with extreme, insane dedication. But if you want to do something extreme - like go from incel to fucking a few hot plates a month, from broke to making 300k a year, from obese to ripped, you need to be extreme. Maybe not Kobe extreme, but probably way more extreme than you think of as healthy or normal.

If you are allergic to longass posts or are going to argue about Kobe v whoever, don't bother reading beyond here.

Kobe has been my favorite athlete for over a decade because he epitomizes extreme dedication, hard work, an intellectual approach, and a willingness to sacrifice everything for what he perceives as his mission in life.

Kobe's work ethic has always been legendary. In high school, he was known for showing up for morning practice at 5:00 am and getting home past 8 or 9. Every trainer or physical therapist he works with basically gets burned out trying to keep up with him and his insane schedule. As a young superstar, he didn't lose his head - he was known for sticking to a clean diet, spending hours a day watching replays, and making his teammates be "guinea pigs" for him to practice hundreds of plays on after games and practices.

When he was accused of rape, a normal person would have crumbled on the pressure. It looked like a done deal; everyone thought he raped her, admit it, you thought he fucking raped her. He was losing deals and staring at the end, his court case looked unwinnable, and anyone with any sense would have thought he had reached the end of his road. I would be tearing my hair out, losing sleep, playing like shit, and losing my cool in front of reports and further vilifying myself.

But what did he do? He played better than ever. He played like this fucking life was on the line and kept up his insane schedule, because he know his life was on the line. Every time he played like he was fighting for his freedom on the court, because in a way, he was. If he had started fucking up on the field due to stress, he very well could have gone to jail because that's how powerful the court of public opinion can be. He never complained, never talked shit about her, never whined, he just played like a man with a gun to his head.

But that's not what caught my eye. Recently I've been reading about how Kobe approaches defeating "aging" and going out on a high level of play. This article talks about how Kobe is basically has no business still trying to play at an extremely high level, but he is so determined to do one more season at his high standard of play that he's set up his entire 18 hour day to "hacking" recovery, nutrition, therapy, and practice to stay in the game.

Aging is not something he can beat. He cannot, absolutely fucking 100% cannot, play anywhere near the God level he has been at before. He is going to fail in his endeavor, 100% guaranteed. But he's doing it anyway.

He's experimenting with everything instead of accepting biology. He's doing cryotherapy, 3-4 ice baths, acupuncture, seeing like 30 different specialists and experts, guzzling bone broth, eating crazy clean, and is basically always having his body kneaded, stretched, iced, loosened, or otherwise prepared in some anally ordered method. He could retire and fuck a new 10 everyday instead, while guzzling champagne in the VIP, but instead, he's potentially crippling himself to prove to himself that he's a champion.

He is seeing the end of the road. As his trainer Vitti puts it:

"Almost all NBA players are on some kind of workers' compensation later on in life," Vitti says. "Basically, they wear out the articulating cartilage in their knees. That's what we end up calling osteoarthritis. Almost all these guys, hip and knee issues, later on in life. He has some [cartilage] issues from playing. And that may come back and haunt him down the road."

He knows this last stab at glory may cost him years of healthy functioning. His mission is that important to him. The specialists and trainers cited in the article mention how a lot of what Kobe does is uncharted territory - no 37+ year old basketball player has shot for this high a level of function and performance after the injuries and strains that 20 years have put on him. No one really knows if his body will hold up. They just have faith, because he's Kobe, and if anyone can do it, it's the guy who has sacrificed everything since he was kid to be more than human.

What also got me was his commitment to understanding everything related to medical / physiology that's going on. He's known for essentially making anyone who works with him explain in great detail why they are doing what they are doing, why that approach works, and so on. Most players just want the solution and don't want to geek out over the details and learn unnecessary stuff.

"So he knows what iliotibial band syndrome is. He knows what the quadratus lumborum is. He knows what the erector spinae is. He'll come in and say, 'I need this released.' A lot of guys, they don't want to know all that ... but he wants to know. 'What are you doing? What is that?' He's always been that way. You've got to give him credit for that."

That to me is huge. If your approach to Red Pill is "I want to know what to do, tell me what I should do in this situation" you will not get far. If your approach is "I want to understand the issue deeply and thoroughly and understand why different approaches get different results, and learn WHY I should do what you're advising to do" you will be able to make much better decisions in real time when you're out there in reality.

He wants to be the best ever to walk on the court, and he has embodied the attitude of a extreme success - not a success, not a "great" success, but a disgustingly extreme success - for two decades.

Now, you can put in a little effort and get a decent body and a cute GF. You can put decent effort and get a good body and a decently active sex life and career. I do not judge you if that's your goals.

But if you truly want to be great, or go from completely trash SMV to reasonably high SMV, you are talking about an extreme transformation. Not as extreme as being one of the best NBA players, but extreme for your standards.

So if you're shooting for the fences, your behavior has to back that. If you want to fuck a lot of girls, hang out at the club every Thursday - Saturday. Approach every single hot girl you can in any given non-work situation. Constantly socialize with every single person you can to grind and build social experience. Move to a city with an abundance of hot girls and hookup culture. Get a bachelor pad near clubs. Find it in yourself to kill it in the gym, kill it at work, eat super clean, and constantly learn new attractive hobbies and skills. Optimize your micro-habits so you free up a minute here and there. Use transit times to work as a way to cram good audiobooks into your head. Get a chick magnet car, get a professional fashion & grooming & skincare consultation. Use high quality sunscreen & skincare products. Get tailored clothes and top end denim and high end shoes. Do everything that will potentially give you a 1% improvement here and there.

If you want fantastic results, you are FUCKING DELUDED if you think that will come from reading TRP and going on 2x a months with your friends. You are deluded if you think that will come from just social game or chatting up Sally using your newfound TRP knowledge.

Now, before you say "But thotwrecker life is about more than fucking thots!" understand I am using this as an example. My good friend is a chick who was the #3 BMW salesperson nationwide and she clears about 300-400k a year. She repeatedly refuses promotions because she makes so much fucking money slanging beamers - and SHE IS AN SHORT, UGLY, STOUT ASIAN WOMAN. She is just insanely dedicated and always studying and learning. She reads maybe 3-4 books a week on psychology, sales, cars, consumer behavior, trends, and studies up on basically every subject so she can quickly make connections with anyone about anything. She can build rapport with an autistic DnD nerd, she can build rapport with celebrities.

This goes for anything you want to be a LEGEND at, not only sex and SMV building. You have to do things that 99.9% of the human population will think you are completely crazy for doing, and you have to enjoy the opportunity to sacrifice your life for your mission.

If you are here wanting to be decent at game and at social situations and be "sorta alpha"... you might achieve that, and you might be satisfied with that. You might get it and then go back to being lazy because you think you have "made it".

But sexual strategy is not a game that rewards decency! It's not 60/40, it's not even 80/20. Go to any top club and see who smashes the hottest pussy, see what % of guys can effortless scoop chicks without paying much at all in time or money. What % of guys are dating or plating 9s and 10s, given that women like to hook UP, not DOWN.

20%ers and 10%ers do alright, and it's certainly a better place to be than firmly in the invisible zone. But they still aren't anywhere near the level of mastery that I want to be at. And this Christmas, if I can give you all one gift, it's to aspire to be at that level.

As a man, you should at least have 1 thing where you aspire to be more than good at. David Deida (Way of the Superior Man) calls this as "knowing and pursuing your mission as a man" and "living at your edge." Men are mission driven; we are here to do something, to be something. This mission must be an extreme mission in order for you to get extreme personal rewards and fulfillment and development from pursuing it.

Again, I'm not saying this has to be women or money. It can be and that's great, but it can also be being an extraordinary professor, a salesman, a CEO, a leader, a scientist, an athlete, or writer, and so on.

But if you don't have something you are extreme about - and you are not putting in extreme "what the fuck is wrong with that guy" levels of dedication, then you will not have the escape velocity you need to find deliverance from the "decent" zone.

TLDR: Be an extremist about whatever it is that's important to you. Challenge yourself to be the best of all time, put the work in that a "G.O.A.T." would put in, and if you fall short due to genetics or bad luck, you'll at least fall HIGH. Good is the enemy of great.

Make people sick and angry with how dedicated you are. Skip out on your family today/tomorrow to go workout. Sustain that dedication for years; the pursuit may change from women, to money, to career growth, to health, to family at different stages of your life, but whatever your mission is at the time, be fucking crazy about it.