THOUGHTS FROM THE FOUL LINE

You’re at the foul line in a 1-and-1 situation. If you sink both shots you could tie the game … so the first shot is particularly critical. As you picture this scenario, do you make the first shot? The second?

Eddie was a college sophomore who was going through a tough patch. Among the areas where he found himself struggling was at the free throw line. He was a proficient free throw shooter in practice, averaging well over 80% of his shots, but in a recent game before contacting me he had gone 2-for-9 from the line.

Against a backdrop of some other problems, including an injury from which he was still coming back, Eddie told me that the one thought that had been going through his mind in that game was “What if I miss?”

When I asked Eddie to tell me about the period in his life when his passion for basketball was at its greatest he told me it was when he was 14, and he would go out to the playground and practice his moves for hours.

In recollecting this time in his life, Eddie recalled that it didn’t matter if he missed a shot, he would just take another. It was the activity itself that was fun, not the results.

He also remembered a game in which he had scored 56 points. “I didn’t even notice the crowd. I remember being really relaxed and not even caring about anything.”

I pointed out to Eddie how the “not caring” was an element often associated with being “in the zone” while his worry about whether the shot would go in was just the opposite – a source of stress certain to keep him OUT OF THE ZONE.

I also shared with Eddie how the thought “I hope I don’t miss” was directing his mind to the very thing he DIDN’T want to happen: missing. I explained that if he was standing at the free throw line with his CONSCIOUS self hoping to make the basket while his SUBCONCSIOUS self focused on missing, he was expending energy fighting himself. The mental tension he was creating was likely resulting in physical tension as well.  Eddie knew that any shot is best taken when a player is relaxed, as Eddie was in the 56-point game, and he needed to stop working against himself.

Another problem caused by his concern about missing is that it was FUTURE-focused rather than present-focused. I explained to Eddie that he couldn’t control the future, all he could control was the present, specifically if he took a fluid shot, had a good release, etc. So by worrying about the RESULTS of his shot as opposed to the QUALITY of the shot was also distracting him from his best execution.

At this point I had Eddie close his eyes and picture himself at the line during the game in which he was struggling, and seeing himself taking the shots that he did.  I then asked him to take several slow deep breaths, and afterwards I asked him how he felt.  “Relaxed,” he told me.  His body language confirmed this.

I asked Eddie to close his eyes again and picture himself at the free throw line, and when he was ready to see himself taking the shot, this time focusing only on the quality of the shot and not worrying about the results. He saw himself sinking the shot. He repeated this action two more times and felt very comfortable that he could go out in games and remain FOCUSED and RELAXED at the free throw line.

A few days later Eddie got back in touch with me to say that he was more relaxed but wanted advice regarding another problem that he had at the line.

“Sometimes I hear a little voice inside of me saying, ‘You’re not that good a shooter.’”  he told me.

While my first inclination was to help Eddie deal with that part of him that would throw out thoughts of doubt as to his ability to get the job done by helping him to respond to that voice with some convincing thoughts (I call these COMPELLING THOUGHTS because we so connect with them that they become our most compelling voice, thus causing the other thoughts or voices to be effectively silenced).  However…after giving it a bit of thought I decided that the most efficient way to help Eddie (that is, the way that would be the quickest) was to give him a different strategy to silence that voice by “changing channels.”

A channel is a way that we experience things.  When he heard that voice he was in a COGNITIVE channel … what we call “being in his head.”  To stay in his head and find the compelling arguments against the voice is an option, but I went for a quicker one by explaining how he could change channels (“Think of it like you are watching ESPN and then you change the TV to a different channel … then you will no longer be receiving ESPN).

I told him that when he heard that voice to focus on taking a few slow and deep breaths, and to really focus on inhaling and exhaling: “Not only will this help you relax, but it will get you to a different channel – in this case your body – and away from your head.  As a result you will no longer be on the channel where this voice is transmitting from.”

Admittedly, Eddie is still a “work in progress” … he recently contacted me about another situation that got him out of his game – but that is for another article.

SORRY THIS ARTICLE IS A BIT LONG BUT I HOPE YOU FIND IT HELPFUL!!

Did this article resonate with you? I welcome your thoughts/responses to this or any other article at MitchSmithMentalCoach@gmail.com All correspondence will be treated in full confidentiality. 

STEP UP YOUR GAME BY "CONTROLLING YOURSELF"

Are you one of the many players who need to be pushed by others or by outside circumstances to step up your game? The following article addresses the ONE critical skill that may be more important than any other in getting you to be a more consistent player....


ONE OF THE MOST FREQUENT CONCERNS raised by athletes I have worked with is how much playing time they receive. At the professional level, this can even be a matter of ones contract not being renewed. 

Matt, a college athlete with whom I had been meeting for most of a season, was particularly concerned when, at one point, he had hardly played at all in two consecutive games, which he found immensely aggravating.

This wasn’t the first time he had been in this situation, but his growing impatience had a surprising twist to it.  The next week in practice, out of frustration, he said to himself “Screw this!”  As it turned out, his “I’ll show them!” attitude prompted a greater than normal amount of energy and aggressive-style play out of him, resulting in a high level of execution.

In the next game, and much to his surprise, Matt was asked to take a key leadership role. This also had an effect on his play. “I felt that the team was behind me, like it was my job to be one of the best performers out there … to be a leader.” Matt found himself playing with heightened confidence, which elevated his game.

WHAT NEARLY EVERY ATHLETE STRUGGLES WITH...

I pointed out to Matt  how these two situations, the anger and frustration of NOT playing and the assignment of a leadership role, both had similar -or at least related - results enhancing his level of play.  The energy that came from his anger, the heightened confidence that came from the leadership role he was given, and the increased boldness in his play, are all hallmarks of top athletic performance.  And that was the very thing - top athletic performance - that we were working together for him to achieve on a more consistent basis.

But there was one aspect to this that champion athletes do that Matt was NOT doing, so I asked him to consider what these two situations had in common  as events which drew these qualities out of him.

After some prompting, Matt understood that both of this situations had their origins OUTSIDE of himself (i.e., his being kept on the bench in the first case, his being given a leadership role in the second). Just as Matt’s great performances were brought out of him in response to events external to himself, he realized that frequently his sub-par performances were also caused by events external to himself and how he responded to them. 

As we discussed it further, Matt saw how this situation (having circumstances mostly happen TO him) could keep him on an emotional roller coaster .. going from the highs of playing major minutes and feeling supported to the lows of not playing and feeling marginal – seemingly because of decisions of the coaching staff. I asked him what it felt like to go back and forth from the highs to the lows and the whole thing being out of his control.

He recognized that this was not a good situation, both in terms of the quality of his play and the mental wear and tear it took out on him.

But Matt is not alone.  Most of the  athletes I work with or have talked to over the years report the same experience - an inconsistent quality of their performance from game to game, usually dependent on decisions or remarks made by the coach.  Matt and other athletes allow themselves to become “prisoners” to the actions of the coach.

FINDING OUR OWN "CONTROL PANEL"

Matt and  other athletes have continually allowed their confidence and boldness to be dictated to them by these external circumstances. Few athletes - or few of us in general  - have been taught the skill of regulating these matters independent of our environment through conscious and deliberate effort. 

Athletes with a high capacity for self-regulation - who are better able to “override” the manner in which outside events might dictate emotional highs or lows - are better able to maintain a consistent mental state and an internal energy-promoter that keep their performance consistently close to the top of their abilities.  They have learned to stay off the emotional roller coaster that produces the moments of high energy alternating with times of demoralization or low energy.

UNDERSTANDING THE CHALLENGE - THEN FINDING STRATEGIES TO MEET IT

As in most matters of inconsistent athletic performance, it is one thing to identify the problem (a vital step to be sure) and quite another to find the right strategies to solve it. Having been told that his game would benefit by taking greater control over his highs and lows, Matt was left with the question of “how exactly do I do that??”

any athlete who is already at a reasonably high level of play will already have some experience having played to the full extent of his talent, so I asked Matt to simply envision a game where he had performed well, with high confidence and high energy. I asked him to relive that game in his mind, so that he could feel in his body how he had felt in the game itself. 

Then I asked Matt if he could find a word, an image or a phrase that captured for him that feeling, a word or image that when he thought of it, it would trigger in him - IN HIS MIND AND IN HIS BODY - the same feelings of energy and confidence.  

Next, I asked Matt to recall a situation (game or practice) where he felt challenged to find energy or excitement, and to go back to that game in his mind so that he might re-experience that very sense of low energy. 

When Matt was able to recall that sensation, I told him to now say to himself the word or picture the image that he associated with that high energy game, and to repeat it and intensify it until he was able to feel himself shifting from low to high energy.

Matt told me that he could feel some success in making that shift. As we discussed it further, Matt was able to focus in on a particular “prompt” - picturing a past coach, someone who really believed in Matt, getting in his face and yelling at him to get out there and play the kind of game of which he was capable.

The message I left with Matt was that it was not his lack of playing time that caused him to “lose” energy, but rather the way he was responding to that lack of playing time. The challenge for Matt was to take more responsibility for self-regulating his energy and emotions in order to play his best on a consistent basis.

I told him that the goal – or at least the ideal – would be to enable himself to attain the same level of energy, confidence and aggressive spirit through his own efforts that he had seen himself experience in response to those events that had originated outside of himself (NOT playing, and being given a leadership role).

THE IMPORTANCE OF FREQUENT AND FOCUSED PRACTICE 

Like any PHYSICAL skill (dribbling, passing, defending) Matt could only expect mastery of this vital mental skill through frequent and repeated practice …. and to make a point of keeping this goal central in his mind.

To that end I encouraged him to spend 10 minutes every day visualizing making the shift from low to high energy... picturing in his mind having his coach get in his face and recalling how it feels to play with high energy.  And when he said that his goal was “to play like this every time out, and to get my game up when I am down,” I suggested that he write that phrase down on a large sheet of paper and post it where he would see it frequently (a good place is on the bathroom mirror, on the refrigerator, or on your locker).

Don't expect change if you aren't willing to put in the work.  BUT... if you commit to this, you will be pleased with the results!!