ARE YOU THIS GUY ... THE PLAYER WHO IS AFRAID OF BEING LET GO??

Jeff is in his first year playing basketball professionally. Recently his coach told him he had to increase his rebounding numbers, and then another player was brought in and Jeff's minutes were cut in half.  Now Jeff is fearful that he may be cut from the team, and he contacted me.

Jeff's numbers (points and rebounds both) were strong in pre-season but fell once the season started. When the coach said something he started to feel pressure on him. Then when he saw his role being switched up he started feeling angry.

The anger became harder to shake off and he found himself starting to feel resentful and resistant to the coach's words... and his production fell even more.

"Now it's like if I miss a shot - or if a guy gets a rebound that I should have gotten, I get on myself, and with each successive mistake or missed opportunity I get myself in deeper and deeper. I start to feel depressed and sometimes I kind of shut down."

I told Jeff that it sounded like after his strong start it probably felt like he was having the rug pulled out from under him.  Especially being alone and halfway across the world, his reaction was understandable - but NOT helpful! 

The first thing I told Jeff was to think of himself as if in a giant wave that was tossing him here and there, but to remember that after a wave crests it subsides, and eventually this wave in his career would subside and things would calm down.

Then I asked him to tell me more about what happened in the games. Jeff told me that when he missed a shot or a rebound, one of the things he would do was to think about how to tweak his execution next time (for example, to extend his arm more on a hook shot). I told him that the more he could direct his thoughts in that way and NOT take the more negative path of beating himself up the more likely he was to stay competitive and keep his head in the game.

One of the things that would help Jeff hold onto a competitive mindset was to tranform the anger he was feeling toward himself when making mistakes to an aggressive attitude that would allow him to utilize the self-corrections he was giving himself in a way to stay energized and a fighter.  

We also explored how he could use relaxation techniques to clear his mind as if hitting a "re-set" button that would delete all the negative chatter going through his mind.  This can be a CRITICAL part of changing your game!!!

When Jeff told me about some of his previous games, one of the things that came out was that his play in those games had felt effortless.  I told him that this was the ideal situation, one which was hard to come by when he was desparate and trying to force things to happen.  I told him, if he could get all the chatter out of his head, it would be like opening the door to a room inside which his competitive self was locked up. By removing from his thoughts all the stuff he though he had to be doing, it opened up the space for all the things he was capable of doing.

In the end, the less you are trying to make things happen and the more you can let your game come to you, the more likely you will be playing at your highest level. That is why "getting your head right" is an essential early step in the process.

WHEN YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST STEP UP YOUR CONFIDENCE: Part 1

William is a volleyball player who had a very successful college career and is now beginning the next chapter as a professional player with a European club. William had read my blog entry about Simon, a basketball player also just starting his pro career.*** 
With his own season just getting underway, William contacted me. This is what he had to say:

I think I am in a similar situation as Simon. Since arriving here I've felt less and less confident with my attacking and it's something I struggle with every practice. For example, whenever I am given a set I have a sudden uncertainty in myself to put the ball away on the other side of the net. I have found myself making more errors, hitting the ball into the net or several feet out of bounds.

It's a very strange feeling that comes over me as soon as I jump and leave the ground to attack the ball. A million things rush through my head at once, and the more times throughout practice or in a match that I fail at attacking, the less confident I get, until I've dug myself in such a deep hole that I make mistake after mistake. I've read many articles on mental toughness, but it always feels useless once I'm actually in the moment right before I attack the ball.

You said that a million things rush through your head. Can you describe one or two of them?

I'll tell myself to contact the ball high, swing deep, I'm looking at where the block is, trying to find the holes in it to hit through, telling myself to just put the ball in, be aggressive and swing away, don't make a mistake.

These are all good self-instructions.  But for you it becomes a problem.

There are a lot of important things that a hitter needs to practice in order to be proficient. But all of those things seem to be a distraction at this point.

If I think back to some of my earlier days in college, I don't remember ever thinking of those things. I just played and I was successful. Now I'm just worrying about all those factors. I think I am afraid to fail and be taken out of the game.  I may tell myself I'm not worried and tell others that I'm nor worried, but maybe that is the case right now.

What things are different now that might be causing this situation?

Well now that I am playing at a higher level I am putting more pressure on myself.  And I might be trying to earn the approval of my new teammates and coaches by succeeding in my position.

Didn't you put pressure on yourself in college?

That's the thing. I definitely did. If anything I should place less pressure on myself now. In college I had my best friends, my girlfriend, lots of school buddies, and my family all watching my matches. Now that I am in Europe none of them are watching or knowing how I am doing other that what I tell them.  Maybe I just had more fun back then, and I didn't get stressed when I failed. Or maybe I didn't feel as judged by my peers at school.

Unlike college, your new teammates are not guys you know well, and this may account for some of the pressure. Maybe you feel a greater need to prove your value as a teammate to them than to your college teammates with whom you had already formed strong friendships.  

Yes, I am sure that is a big part of it.

Tell me, what was it that kept you from getting stressed when you missed shots or had mistakes in college?

I had supportive coaches who were ok with mistakes, as long as the mistakes were aggressive and they felt we acknowledged how to correct them. And some of my teammates were my best friends. I knew that no matter what mistakes I may have made, they still had my back.

The thing that comes through in your comments is the fear of making mistakes that you are now feeling so strongly.

Yes, and with that so prominent in my mind, my focus on the moment and trust in myself is quite limited. I guess I am really afraid of losing my starting position because of the mistakes I make.  I guess that is at the heart of it all.

Exactly. Earlier you said that when you felt yourself flooded with thoughts in matches you tell yourself to contact the ball high, swing deep, look where the block is, find the holes, put the ball in, be aggressive, swing away, don't make a mistake.
It is that last thing - DON'T MAKE A MISTAKE - that gets in the way of effectively using the other good instructions you give yourself, no?

Yeah. I think it overshadows everything. 

So let's keep in mind that as you mentioned, in college you didn't stress out after making mistakes because the support of your teammates and coaches made it fun. I think that is a big part of what makes it different for you now.  Except for perhaps roller coasters it is literally not possible to experience FEAR and FUN at the same time. One will always cancel the other one out.

Yeah, there is truth in that absolutely.

When it comes to this contest between FEAR and FUN, tell me how you would complete the following sentence:
"I may make a mistake (like hitting the ball into the net or out of bounds), but ___________ ."

" ... but I'm still here to have fun" ?

I see you put a question mark at the end, which prompts me to ask, when you hear yourself say "I may make a mistake but I'm still here to have fun," how much conviction to you hear or feel in your words (in a percentage from 0% to 100% conviction). The more conviction, the greater the impact of telling yourself this.

I guess about 85%. I want to have fun but I also want to succeed career-wise.

I ask this because the greater your conviction the more likely it is to help you shift your mindset away from the fear it is focusing on at the moment.

Click here for Part 2


***   "What Are You Looking At?"

WHEN YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST STEP UP YOUR CONFIDENCE: Part 2

William, the first year professional volleyball player (from Part 1 of this post) wanted to shift his mindset from one of FEAR (of making a mistake) to one of FUN, which would allow him to be more aggressive and likely more successful in his game.  He came up with the thought "I may make a mistake (like hitting the ball into the net or out of bounds) but I'm still here to have fun."

I shared with him that the greater his conviction in saying this sentence to himself the more likely it would be to help him shift his mindset.

"I do think that having fun is the first thought that comes to mind because I have always told myself it's just a game so have fun. But now volleyball has become more than a game to me, it is my job - my life. So if I can convince myself of the truth of that phrase before each play or before I serve, I will give myself less to fear and be happier regardless of the result?

Yes ... but it's not really so much IF you can convince yourself of the truth of that or any particular phrase as much as trying to figure out what phrase you hear yourself saying to complete that sentence when you basically clear your mind - rather than trying to "force" any particular ending.

Still, that is the first thought that came to mind for you, so it may not be so much you have to convince yourself as much as let yourself identify with this idea.

If you are looking to be playing volleyball professionally for some years, then if you are not having fun it will be a rather stressful journey! Do you think you can see yourself having fun in a way that will remove a good part of the pressure yet still focus on the demands of this career path?

If I am not successful then it will be a struggle.

It is natural to equate success with fun. In general when we are not good at something it is not fun for us and we lose interest. That being said, I would challenge you to re-think what success means for you at this point in time.

I guess I've indentified success in volleyball with winning. I've always had the "go-to" guy role on my high school and college teams. And I've proven effective as that person in the past. So when I'm not leading the team in points I feel as though I have let both myself and my team down.

I can certainly understand that.  Let's just widen the picture a bit. Can you think of some additional aspect of success that isn't tied to whether you win or lose.  After all, not even the best teams win ALL the time. That doesn't necessarily make them "losers" the other times (except in the technical sense of having lost that particular match).

Well, I feel I have succeeded when I have peace of mind in knowing I performed to the best that I am capable of. If I am contenct with the output of my performance on the court that day, then (and probably only then) was it a success.

So you could have a match where you gave the best you had and even if your team lost you could consider it a personal success.

In that respect yes.

And do you generally have a good feel after each match if you performed to the best or your ability?

I do.

So returning to what we were saying about "I may make a mistake but I am here to have fun," don't you think that if you focus on giving your best effort as ONE important measure of success then you can tie that with having fun?

Yes, I could definitely do that.

And perhaps you could sometimes just say to yourself "I may make a mistake but I am here to give my best effort, which will include some mistakes."

That being said, you could also add as a goal GIVING YOUR BEST EFFORT TO TRUST YOURSELF more than you are doing at the moment, because now you are second guessing yourself or otherwise driven by fear of making a mistake. ***

With this in mind, I have two specific action steps to suggest to you. The first is to track after each match you well you are doing in giving your best effort and trusting yourself, and giving yourself a score from 1-100 on each of those, and also writing 1-2 sentences describing what you did or didn't do that you based this score on. 

The second thing is to find a way in practices to work on being able to trust yourself more, at the same time that you are woking on the technical parts of your game. In other words, having a MENTAL training goal as well as the PHYSICAL goals your have for practice.

If you follow through on these ideas I believe you will start to see a difference in your situation.

Thanks!! I am positive that I can start to feel less pressure. This has been very insightful for me and I really appreciate it.

*** (See "When the Pressure in On, Which Will Triumph: Fear or Trust?" http://mitchsmithmentalcoach.blogspot.com/2015/09/when-pressure-is-on-which-will-triumph.html)

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT???

After a successful 4-year stint in one of the strong NCAA Division 1 Basketball programs, Simon entered the next chapter of his career as a professional in a EuroLeague level team in Europe.  Simon recently contacted me after having an up-and-down start to his season. When he was playing well he of course felt comfortable. But when he missed a couple of shots he started to become quite self-critical and found himself overthinking everything out on the court. As a result his game suffered.

One of the things I stressed in my conversations with Simon to remind him that even the best athletes make mistakes or miss shots - and therefore the problem isn't whether or not you make mistakes as much as what happens when you make those mistakes ... how you feel about the mistake ... how well you get back in the game afterwards ... and how quickly.

At the heart of the matter is how you perceive the mistake - in other words how you look at what happened.

About 80 years ago a group of psychologists in Germany started what an approach to psychology they called "Gestalt," drawing on the German word for form or shape. One of the principles of their approach was that situations were best viewed in their entirety and not as a collection of their individual parts, but that each of us have a tendency to only see a "part of the whole" based on our personal needs and agenda.

A famous example of this theory was the drawing seen here.

When individuals were asked what they saw, some reported seeing an old lady while others saw an attractive young woman.

In their discussion of how it was that people looking at the same object or situation perceive different things, they explained that in any whole - some part of it will appear to us as the FOREGROUND and the rest will be the BACKGROUND.  Some part of that whole will stand out as the primary object and the rest will serve as the setting.

In the present example, some saw the features of the young lady as the foreground and the rest as the background, and for others it was the features of the old woman as the foreground. Similarly, when different people go to a game where their sons or friends are playing on the same team, each will have their own particular loved one in the foreground and the rest of the team as the background.

For Simon, his mistakes of the moment became the foreground and everything else in the game (and for that matter in his basketball career) became background. Because his mistakes or missed shots took center stage in his mind, it made it hard for him to mentally let them go and move on.

In such cases, when a person can learn to alter the way he perceives this event, it will results in a different (and more effective) way of responding.

All it took for Simon was to find some other part of the whole to direct his focus to. One such part that did the trick for Simon was the thought that he was out there competing as part of a team who had each other's back. When he shifted his attention to this he found that his mistakes were no longer front and center in his thoughts, and it allowed him to stay confident and competitive after missed shots, lost rebounds or turnovers.

Whatever part of the whole we are looking at will determine our reponse, so it's always helpful to figure out what we are looking at and precisely what it is that we are paying attention to.  As YODA reminds us:

VISUALIZATION PART 3: USE THESE THREE MENTAL REHEARSAL TECHNIQUES FOR MAXIMUM SUCCESS

A post player was having trouble when getting the ball down low because of frequent traveling once the ball was in his hands. He told me that he was working on NOT traveling and I explained to him the value of re-thinking his goal in terms of what he wanted to do rather than what he was hoping NOT to do.

He then showed me the move he would typically make and I asked him to do it without the ball. After doing this several times he worked on getting the pass and making the same move, this time with the ball. So he came up with the thought of making this move assertively and confidently as his intention (rather than staying with the idea of NOT traveling)

A week later he told me “I'm actually thinking about what to do and not about what NOT to do, but it's not easy ....I have to get used to it so it will become natural.”

I asked him to tell me what would help him do this and he replied, “I think how to make the move before I get the ball.”

I gave him the following additional suggestions:

1. When you are alone, close your eyes and picture getting the ball and making your move. Repeat this a couple of times, seeing yourself acting in a confident and aggressive way.

2. Picture yourself as if you were sitting in the stands and watching yourself make the move. Pay attention to your footwork and rhythm as you imagine watching yourself on the court.

3. Pick out one place in your body that is key in this move - your feet? your core? your upper body? This time use your sense of muscle feeling rather than vision to imagine this move, so that even though you are seated when you mentally rehearse this move you feel the very same muscles activated that you would feel if you were actually playing. 

In the gym practice this move alternating between doing it without the ball and with the ball. Every 4th or 5th time do the move in your mind, and then go back to doing the actual move. 

Finally, think of one or two words that most describe how you want the move to go and write them down.

One last thing I shared with him was that if he was going to plan the move in his mind ahead of time it was important to be careful to NOT get ahead of himself. Other players have shared with me that on occasion they got tripped up by picturing something in advance and then sticking with that when in the particular circumstances of actual play the defense played him differently and that move turned out to not be the best move for the moment. If you are too caught up in what you are GOING TO DO when you get the ball you may not be leaving enough focus for the PRESENT MOMENT that you are in right now.  Without strong focus as the ball is being passed to you, you may be more likely to have it slip through your fingers or be picked off.

So while it is good to feel confident about what you are GOING TO DO, it is no less important to stay focused IN THE MOMENT and be ready to adjust to any last second changes in the defense to make the best possible decision/move.

One way to increase your capacity to do this is to spend a good amount of time visualizing situations where the defender switches things up or your teammates are in different places on the floor.  

Adding this skill to your on-court practice can allow you to feel more prepared, and as a rule, when athletes feel more prepared they feel more confident and self-assured - a strong precursor of success.

For previous posts on using visualization click here

GETTING QUALITY RESULTS FROM PRACTICE: PART 1

Practice: The Key To Progress Is YOU

There are a number of reasons why practice is the critical element in your athletic performance.

•  This is the time when you IMPROVE YOUR TECHNICAL SKILLS, and get individual or team plays down to the point where you can execute them automatically, without having to stop and think about what you are doing.

•  This is also the time where you WORK ON WEAK AREAS, and expand your range of skills. Some athletes are content to stay in their comfort zone, and use practice as a time to get ego-strokes rather than to bring some of the weaker aspects of their game up a notch.

•  Practice can be an important period in terms of your self-confidence. As things go well in practice, you will feel more encouraged, and generally confident in your abilities to execute under pressure. The most important key to athletic success is the ability to deliver the goods at crunch time.  FOR MANY ATHLETES, THE FEELING THAT THEY HAVE DONE THEIR WORK IN PRACTICE IS A CRITICAL COMPONENT OF THEIR SELF-CONFIDENCE.

•  It is also a time to work on your MENTAL game. If you envision yourself as a player who can go strong late in the game, if you want to be a team leader, if you could do a better job of re-focusing and getting back into the game after making an error or, if your game would benefit from better anticipation -- then YOU SHOULD BE FOCUSING ON AND SOLIDIFYING YOUR MENTAL GAME AT THE SAME TIME THAT YOU ARE LOOKING TO MAKE PROGRESS ON YOUR PHYSICAL SKILLS.

What is important to remember in all of this is that significant progress will be accomplished to the degree that you take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for making progress. Too often, athletes, especially in team sports, show up to practice physically, but not mentally. They go through the motions and put in the hours, but they have not taken the time to articulate to themselves clearly what they plan to get out of that practice, so their progress is sporadic rather than FOCUSED and DELIBERATE. 

Here are some important steps that will help you become PERSONALLY ACCOUNTBLE for your own progress:

•  You should have a clear sense of what you are trying to get out of the practice. What is the OUTCOME you desire (for example: tighter ball control, to cut down on your turnovers, greater confidence in your court decision-making ability, or more explosive moves). If you have not figured out exactly what you want to happen, or rely on the coach to do this, you are not likely to make as much progress.

•  If your sport is a team sport, you are responsible for team goals, and whatever the coach decides you should be working on. But you must not let that prevent you from assuming responsibility for your personal goals as well. You can even meet with your coach in advance, to identify individual goals for yourself.

•  In order to make good progress, once you have goals in mind, you also need a GAME PLAN. What are the things that you can do to accomplish your goals for practice? These might include reminding yourself of your goal and giving yourself positive feedback for staying focused.  (You might consider thinking of a slogan for your goal(s), and every time your coach blows his/her whistle, you could say your slogan to yourself to remind yourself of the efforts you should be taking, or you could picture an admired sports hero complimenting you on your effort.) It is important to give a sustained effort to make real progress.

Basically, you will make the MOST PROGRESS  if you:

•  Set some clear goals and establish a timeline for each one

•  Get to work to do what you have to do to achieve them, and

•  Routinely evaluate your efforts, and revise your game plan as needed.

As you apply this strategy to improving your athletic skills, you will be incorporating a life skill that will also serve you in personal and professional concerns in years to come.

Let me conclude with a useful quote from Michael Jordan, who probably knew more about this topic than just about anyone else:

“I’ve always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come.  I don’t do things half-heartedly, because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results.  That’s why I approached practices the same way I approached games.  You can’t turn it on and off like a faucet.  I couldn’t fake it during practice and then, when I need that extra push late in the game, expect it to be there.”   (Michael Jordan)

© 2015 by Dr. Mitchell Smith.  All rights reserved.  

GETTING QUALITY RESULTS FROM PRACTICE: PART 2

Repeated self-reflections over a period of 2-3 weeks can yield substantial learning about how to make the most progress during training sessions. The following form can prove helpful (or create your own)

SELF-RATING  FORM FOR PRACTICES

Date:____________________

1.  What was your MAIN goal for today’s practice (some thing you want to get better at)?

2.  Using the scale below, how would you rate your efforts to accomplish today’s main goal?

1....…....2.….......3….....…4…….....5….....…6….....…7….....…8….....…9….....…10

Really BAD.......…Inconsistent......…So-so.......…Consistently good......….Excellent

3.  What examples best indicate if you accomplished your goal?

4.  What strategies helped you accomplish what you did – for example, any ATTITUDES you kept in mind, or any THOUGHTS you kept saying to yourself, that contributed to the task?

5.  Using the scale below, how was your energy level today – (good intensity, staying focused, actively fighting off distracting thoughts or emotions,  and fighting off fatigue?

1....…....2.….......3….....…4…….....5….....…6….....…7….....…8….....…9….....…10

Really BAD.......…Inconsistent......…So-so.......…Consistently good......….Excellent

6.  When you think about the progress you made today, what do you think you learned about your efforts that will help you in the next few practices or in your next game?

7.  Based on today, what goal(s) will you set for tomorrow or future practices?

© 2015 by Dr. Mitchell Smith.

VISUALIZATION: PART 2

USING MENTAL REHEARSAL FOR ATHLETIC SUCCESS

Research on the use of mental rehearsal (picturing yourself executing moves in your mind just as you might actually do in a real practice or competition) has shown that athletes who do this routinely alongside their actual practice show stronger improvement than athletes who limit themeselves to the practice alone.

The following is an interesting example of how mental rehearsal can prove to be quite valuable, as related by former top college gymnast Cathy Johnson, during a period when she was unable to actually train due to an injury.

I had begun using visualization to learn and improve my skills ... to develop kinesthetic feelings associated with my movements ... and to create a competitive atmosphere in my workouts.

   
   I remember when I learned a new skill (a double-vault, one flip backwards and two turns going around my axis): I visualzed it and I worked in practice, and after some time I succeeded in making a perfect movement.  I knew it because of the wonderful feeling it gave me. Anyway, right after my first good double vault, I injured my wrist and had to rest for 2 weeks.  However, I remembered this wonderful kinesthetic feeling and during those two weeks I practiced the double vault in my mind, both waking and in my sleep.

   After two weeks, when my wrist had healed, I went back and said to my coach that I was going to do a double vault. His answer was, "No, no, there's no way you could do a double vault.  You have not even worked out for two weeks."

   I insisted and told him that I could do it, and then I went out and did a perfect one. He looked very surprised and said, "That must have been luck; you can't do that again." I told him that I could, and went back and did another one.

   My coach asked he how this was possible as I had not been practicing for two weeks, so I told him that I had been practicing in my mind. I had the feeling inside; I knew what this movement was supposed to be like, and that I could even practice it in bed.

   I used visualization to go through my routines every night. In my mental rehearsal, I figured out the problems, saw and felt the differences between good and bad performances, and rehearsed the ideal performance. I saw myself from an observer's point of view, like watching a movie ... and made corrections. Then my images became more internal.  Then, when I was actually in competition, I just remembered "trigger points" and the rest came by itself.

Also, I was able to say to myself in competitions: "I just have to do what I know I can do - just another repetition of what I have done many times every day."

I think I have developed the mental "strength" which I will benefit from in the future.  I have learned that if I have the right goals, good self-confidence, and a positive attitude - everything is possible.

(From: Mental Training in Gymnastics, Lars-Eric Unestahl, Editor, Veje Publications, 1983)

NOTE: Carol Johnson earned 2nd place in 2 events in the 1978 NCAA Nationals, a rather remarkable achievement considering that she has only one arm. A movie ("Lefty") was later made about her life and accomplishments by the Walt Disner Corporation.

VISUALIZATION: USING YOUR BRAIN FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE

STRENGTHENING THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN MIND AND BODY TO PLAY YOUR BEST

   A veteran basketball player who was honored as the Defensive Player of the Year in his league recently wrote me with the following question:

   “I would like to use visualization in my mental approach.  I have tried it before a bit but would like to improve on this and become more consistent with it.  Do I visualize myself doing shooting drills and such - or do I try to picture game situations and actual play? How often should I visualize? And for how long?”

ANSWER:

   First, keep in mind the goal of visualization – which is to recreate or imagine in your mind an actual experience you have had or might have on the court. The benefit of this experience is to improve and strengthen your physical skills by building stronger connections between the mind and the body … between the PHYSICAL and the MENTAL.

  Next, what is it that you want to improve?

  For example - a player who has been doing drills every day to get better in some part of his game could visualize doing the same drills in his mind.  As he does this, he could notice what is happening when he does this drill in his mind. Does it feel like it flows well or is there hesitation? Does it feel like he is getting it precisely or that he is struggling a bit.  After doing this a few times – he will get a good idea of WHAT HE NEEDS TO DO to get that move or play just right.

   The next step is what we call MASTERY – that is, doing the drill over and over in his mind with the proper moves, timing, and feel of his body.  There is research that athletes who use visualization in this way along with doing the drill itself in the gym perform better than players who ONLY do the drill itself without spending time using visualization.

   A player can also use visualization for actual games. One very effective thing a player could do the day before a game or the morning of the game is to picture certain situations that might come up and see himself making successful moves to score, rebound, pass, or defend in BEST FORM.

   He might use visualization with regard to MISTAKES made in previous games – seeing what he did wrong - then “rewinding the tape” to the moment just before he made the mistake, and then picture executing better moves this time. Doing this a few times can really help a player LEARN FROM HIS MISTAKES  (or missed shots, missed rebounds or missed defensive moves) and IMPROVE HIS LEVEL OF PLAY.

   Another use for visualization is to picture various situations where he wanted to work on his DECISION MAKING with the ball, seeing himself with the ball and picture himself making STRONG MOVES and FEELING CONFIDENT and IN CONTROL.

   The value of visualization might be seen in the fact that over 90% of Olympic athletes report routinely using visualization in their quest for an Olympic medal. Athletes who use visualization with consistency report improving such things as going strong to the hoop, feeling confident in being able to outplay their defender, and quickly finding their game rhythm when they are on the floor.

ARE YOU PAYING TOO MUCH ATTENTION TO YOUR STATS???

Rob, a 7-footer who is in his sophomore (2^nd) year had a great early-season game, netting 6 points ,12 rebounds and three blocked shots After limited playing time in his first year, this was a real boost to his confidence, and after the game he was very pleased with the results.

When I mentioned to him that his great game was, in my opinion, demonstrated in more than just the box-score stats – things like the number of shots he prevented apart from the three he blocked, and the great screens he set that kept the offense flowing and led to teammates scoring – he said “Yes, but the stats are what count. The stats are what are going to get me more playing time.”

It is likely that his coach, along with so many others in the profession, are driven by stats because, in the end, it is their win-loss record that will get them either a contract extension or let go.

Also, let's not forget that the very essence of sports is to have more points than the other team.

That being said, however, I believe that an over-emphasis on the stats can often be a destructive force.

I will just mention in passing, for example, how it often creates a me-first kind of thinking. I remember a friend of mine whose son was on his national team's U20 squad. She told me that one year after every game the players would first thing look to see their individual numbers, and cared more about that than how the team did as a whole. The impact on the team's overall performance that year was undeniable.

But what I really want to address here is how the heightened focus on stats can serve to stymie an athlete's best effort.

Every athletes performs at his optimal level with a certain amount of pressure on him. Knowing that a game is important can increase one's motivation. But when that optimal level of stress is exceeded, the player's performance will typically take a downward turn. So more often than not, when a player puts pressure on himself to achieve a certain level of stats, this will turn against him.

Related to this is the fact that the athlete will direct more focus to things over which he has no control rather than those factors which are under his control. In basketball, to give an example, the things a player can control include his decision making and shot selection, how he squares his body for the shot, if he is not too tight, how bold (rather than tentative) his moves are. But in the end, he can't control if the shot will actually go in (how giving is the rim, did an opponent have an opportunity to block it).

So the percentages lie with the player who is focused on the quality of his play rather than the results of his efforts. Ironically, by NOT worrying so much about the stats per se, he may end up with better stats.

As I mentioned before, not all things that contribute to the final score are even measured in the stats (like deflected shots).

I said to this young player that I really liked the comptitive intensity that he brought to the game and I thought that really played a part in the kind of results he obtained. But by overly focusing on the stats he might compromise the QUALITY of his play (i.e., that intensity and drive) and perhaps the enjoyment he seemed to be having out there.

It is hard to picture someone who is concerned with his stats having fun!!

Another player who plays professionally in Europe told me that because of expectations placed on him, he thought he should be getting 20 points and 10 assists per game. After a missed shot or two he would start to feel an additional burden when he thought to himself “I still have to make my 'quota' and now there is even less time on the clock for me to get the job done”

Ironically, it is by relaxing and letting go a bit of that expectation that he stands the best chance of actually producing those kind of stats.

Following a game in his rookie season when he wasn't shooting particularly well, New York Knicks player Kristaps Porzingis commented on how valuable it was for him that the coaching staff was allowing him to play through his mistakes, and the confidence this gave him on the court (and not having to worry about his stats).

After another game when the Spurs held off the Knicks in a 106-98 win, Patty Mills had 10 key points for the Spurs in the 4th quarter. Afterwards teammate Pau Gasol noted that Mills "is not the kind of player who thinks a lot about his stats."

There is another aspect to this undue emphasis on stats. Rob shared with me that after his game where he got 12 rebounds, the coach came down on one of the star players for the fact that he didn't have so many rebounds in that game. “His play in this game allowed me to get more rebounds,” Rob told me. Our coach is looking at individual effort rather than how we are playing as a team.

Finally, I think that such a coach may compromise the development of his players, and his team, by focusing exclusively on stats/results and not on the quality of play and learning that takes place. 

"BE MORE AGGRESSIVE OUT THERE!!"

In "The Mental Game of Baseball” authors Harvey Dorfman and Karl Kuehl note that while coaches are "often heard shouting such directions as ‘Hang tough!’ or ‘Be ready!’ or ‘Keep your eye on the ball’ they have seldom been able to tell their players HOW to be tough, or WHAT is required in order to be ready and see the ball well.  The players are left to their own devices … not quite sure what to do about it.” Some other coach favorites include "Stay focused" and "Be more aggressive out there!!"

Here are a  “Stay f

A D1 college basketball coach asked me to work with his team’s starting center, a promising 7-footer who the coach said, (surprise, surprise) needed to “be more aggressive.”

The player agreed with his coach’s assessment, but further told me that he generally saw aggressive play to be the kind of thuggish in-your-face style that led to throwing chairs and the like…. whereas he took great pride in having been raised to be the very OPPOSITE – decent and considerate of others.  So despite pressure from both the coach and the player himself to be more aggressive on the court, he was facing some obstacles to playing aggressively.

In part it just boiled down to the fact that he wasn’t sure exactly WHAT it was he should be doing differently – or doing more consistently – in order to be a more aggressive player. 

When the player and I discussed what playing more aggressively would be like for him in specific, behavioral terms, he came up with the following list of components:

1.  Making moves that were bolder (i.e. less tentative)
2.  Executing his plays as much as possible when being  defended, and having a back-up move ready to go if he  needed it
3.  Holding position

While there is a lot more that goes into aggressive play from a cognitive and emotional standpoint, narrowing the focus down to specific and observable behaviors gave the athlete both a clearer picture of WHERE he wanted to get to, and a roadmap for HOW to get there. Rather than thinking in terms of an inferred or abstract trait such as aggressiveness, the player learned to direct his attention toward these three target behaviors, and trying to bring them out as much as possible in practice, as well as through other off-court drills that we developed.  Other than the first 30 minutes of our work together, during the next 12 months the word “aggressive” was never used.

The following season, this athlete earned honors as his conference’s Player of the Year.  When we later sat down to explore the impact that our work had on his growth and performance, his first comment was “I am a more aggressive player.”

For Further Consideration

If you are looking to be a more aggressive player, try thinking of a game (or practice) where you think you played pretty aggressively, and write down a careful description of how you were playing that day, including thoughts you might have had going on in your mind, your mental outlook/frame of mind, your feelings that day regarding handling pressure, and the nature of the moves you were making that day. 

Look over what you have written, then underline the 2-3 most central elements.  By keeping these components in mind, you can help recapture how you were playing that day for future reference.

Too often coaches tell a player to “concentrate” more or “be more confident”, but unless the athlete has a good image of what he needs to do for this to occur (and it is the same image which the coach has) it often leaves the player frustrated as to how to get there.  If there is some aspect of your game where you coach is eager for you to improve and you’re not clear on what you need to do for this to happen, consider asking your coach for a behavioral example of what he wants you to be doing more, or differently.  This should help you get a more precise picture of the target you are aiming for.

And then there’s this…

One athlete I worked with told me his coach said to him that by the time you get to college, you should know how to get through the mental part of it by yourself.  While it is true that most athletes know there is a “mental part” to get through, the dozens of athletes that I have worked with have all found that discussing concrete strategies to master this part of the game can make all the difference.  The fact is that many coaches have never gotten that particular training.  So when they expect you to “tough it out” they just are giving you the best of their experience (See “REFLECTIONS ON MENTAL TOUGHNESS”, another article I have written)

     BUT THE ATHLETE WHO UNDERSTANDS THAT – IN THE END – HE OR SHE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR GROWTH AS AN ATHLETE AND IS WILLING AND INTERESTED TO SEEK OUT OTHER WAYS TO GAIN THESE SKILLS IS THE REAL WINNER.

  

© by 2007 by Dr. Mitch Smith.  All rights reserved