MARCH MADNESS: HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT IT?

TAKE THE STAIRS!

For most of us, the motivation which pushes us toward important goals requires daily recommitment. It takes conscious effort to develop the habits that will take us from where we are to where we want to be. Looking for short-cuts is an ever-present temptation.

University of Texas Arlington men's basketball coach Scott Cross knows a bit about that. Cross has led his 2016-17 team to a 47-8 record, 14-4 in conference play. After falling in the Sun Belt Conference championship and losing out on a spot in the NCAA Tournament, the Mavericks were invited to the NIT, where they have beated BYU on the road 105-89 and taken down Akron at home 85-69, with hopes of making it to the final games in Madison Square Garden.

Two years ago, Cross happened upon a number of his players taking an elevator to go up one flight of stairs. He called them out, told them that guys who take the elevator are looking for shortcuts, and "that's not who we are."

Says Cross, "There's no reason to wait 30 seconds for an elevator when you could be moving your feet. It's the same way you have to treat the game of basketball. If you're looking for the easy way in basketball, to not sit in a defensive stance for a possession, or not block out, or not sprint back in transition defense to get the win ... it's going to catch up with you. That's the mindset and mentality I want our team to have." 

Writes Sam Vecenie of The Sporting News, who spent some time with the UTA program, "That workmanlike outlook has infiltrated the program in other places, too. Every game the coaching staff puts together a hustle points chart on the white board in the locker room and uses it as a tool to motivate the team. They assign a point value to every offensive rebound, defensive rebound, steal, block, dive, grabbed loose ball, deflection, charge, and-one and non-hustle play per game. If the team loses hustle points and then loses the game, the coaching staff implements "championship conditioning" at the next practice."

When noted sport psychologist Terry Orlick was asked some years ago by the NHL to look at factors that might best predict success in the league, he found that "desire, determination, attitude, heart and self-motivation were often the crucial ingredients that tilted the balance in favor of making it or not at the professional level." (In Pursuit of Excellence: How to Win in Sport and Life Through Mental Training)

Orlick cited the example of former hockey great Bobby Clarke and what a member of the Philadelphia Flyers front office said about him at the time:

"We drafted Bobby Clark on our second round, but there was a boy we drafted on our first round who was bigger and stronger, could skate and shoot better than Clarke, but Clarke made it and he didn't.  He wasn't willing to sacrifice that little extra you need to be a professional hockey player. In practice Clarke would be there 10 minutes longer and he would work harder. In a game he got himself mentally prepared to give extra ... the other player didn't do that. Result - one went ahead, the other fell behind."

Lance Allred, the first legally deaf player in the NBA, who recently ended an 11-year global basketball career, has written, "I never won a lot of trophies. Never won an MVP award. And I never let it break me, as I never felt entitled to it. Entitlement is a vicious disease. Instead, I woke up every morning and kept grinding, while those who were far more talented, yet more entitled than me, drifted away. Being 'right' never got me more playing time; in fact it only lessened it."

Good thoughts to reflect on next time we push that elevator button. 

MORE MARCH MADNESS: LESSONS FROM A LOSING TEAM

PITINO CITES CRITICAL YET COMMON PITFALLS IN TEAM’S NCAA DEFEAT

Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals gave up a second half 9 point lead to Michigan, losing 73-69 in second round 2017 NCAA play.  Afterwards Coach Pitino reflected on the team’s second half difficulties.  “Where we have struggled is on the mental facets of the game. Michigan played great, but we beat ourselves mentally. I could say that every game we lost this season it was because of the mental parts of the game, not the physical. Our guys consistently give great effort... (One of the problems was) guys were so absorbed by the offense. Quentin (Snider) says ‘Oh God – I’m 0-for-9. I’m letting my team down.  I want to win so badly’ then runs into a screen. We’ve got to get our guys out of this mindset of scoring – and if they don’t score they’ve got to play defense.  Once we get out of that (thinking) we’ve got a great chance to come back and be an outstanding team.”

Pitino’s comments point to two key difficulties I have noticed in my 20 years working with athletes.

First, I have found that players and teams who find themselves struggling will typically double down on effort, assuming that doing more of the same, only with greater resolve, is going to make the difference.  Pitino’s point regarding making changes on the MENTAL level, not the PHYSICAL level, is so frequently missed by players, and particularly players with less experience. 

My previous post  offers examples of the importance of mental adjustments to stay competitive in pressure situations. The fact is that players ARE taught to give greater effort and to care MORE; they are RARELY taught how to make critical adjustments to their thinking that result in a more EFFORTLESS performance.

The second trap which so many players fall into is their disproportionate focus on offense. It leads to dismissing the equally important role of defense.  In the end, the game is about prevailing over an opponent with all the tools at your disposal. But far too often, players are ill-equipped to grasp this critical point because of a constant emphasis on statistics as the primary measure of a player’s effectiveness or value.

Some years ago I attended the European Men’s Basketball U20 Championships.  One of the players on the UK team was playing during the regular season for a college team in the U.S. whose coach is a friend of mine.  When I emailed my friend to tell him I had seen his guy play he wanted to know how he had played. I told him that the player had not made it into the stats but had done a lot of little things that helped his team, like setting great screens that allowed a teammate to score, or chasing down loose balls to keep a possession going.  This coach was happy to hear, because this was also the kind of player he wanted on his teams.

Snider’s offensive difficulties may have chipped away at his overall confidence and mental energy which, applied to defense and the other “little things” might have  helped alter the game’s balance. 

Furthermore, as many players know, when things aren’t going well on offense, channeling your energies into defense can often help you turn around your own sense of competitive spirit.  But unless coaches and/or the players themselves dedicate time in practice throughout the season to understanding and successfully executing this part of the game, it won’t be there for them when they need it most.

"Are You Paying Too Much Attention to Your Stats?"

MARCH MADNESS: WHEN MENTAL TOUGHNESS MATTERS MOST

Mental toughness and a warrior mindset are often key to athletic victories, and no where is this as true as in the NCAA tournament where teams are fighting to get to the Final Four and then to win the whole thing.

In describing the lowest scoring NCAA Final Four game in history (UConn over Butler 53-41 in the 2011 Championship Game), the word “ugly” was used by sports writers about a gazillion times. Well… it WAS a low-scoring game (22-19 at the half – there are football games with higher scores than that!!) Yes, both teams played tenacious defense, but in a second half where Butler shot 6-for-37 (and just 2-for-18 two-point shooting – that’s 11.1%!!!) I believe it was more than the aggressive UConn defense that made the difference.

While UConn did manage to shut Butler down, the Butler players DID get many decent looks in the second half – the shots just didn’t fall. Any team – and any player – can have an off night where that is going to happen.  But I suspect that in large part, Butler had a hand in its own poor showing.

Consider the comment made by UConn guard Jeremy Lamb, whose solid second half play helped his team to a decisive pummeling of Butler. Lamb noted afterwards that after his own difficulties in the first half where none of his own shots were falling, he got a boost of confidence when he made his first two free throws in the second half. “Feeling the ball go through the net really helped,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the opposite dynamic was happening for Butler. As shots didn’t fall, the frustration kept building, and the disappointment kept growing. I suspect that guys’ mental/emotional state (stress) started to take its toll, and when it did, muscles tightened up, shots got rushed, and they began to force their game.

A few years ago in a second-round NCAA Tournament game, CAL Berkeley, known for its strong defensive play, faced Pitt, another defense-minded team. When California’s offense went four minutes without scoring, the team started to get into a rut. Soon their defensive effort went downhill as well. The dry spell on offense led to frustration, which in turn stymied their defensive play. It was a hard-fought game, and Pitt never let up, but in many ways CAL beat themselves when they let a few bad moments take them out of their game.

I am certain that Butler coach Brad Stevens (currently head coach of the Boston Celtics) came up with well-crafted plays to help his guys get back into the game. But I suspect that they were struggling to regain their competitive fight.  It was there - as much as in the X's and O's - where Butler could have used a re-set button. 

Thomas, a post player I worked with, had been struggling throughout much of the season, missing shots he knew he should have been making. We had been working together for two months when he told me about one game he had played.

“I missed a lot of easy shots in the first half – my coach was yelling at me, my head was going crazy. But at half time I listened to my body; it was tight.  I took some deep breaths and relaxed, trying to let go of all the stress and get back the two things you and I have talked about – playing with conviction … and having fun.  I then went out in the second half and finished two shots around the rim and hit a 3-pointer in the third quarter.  I ended up with 25 points and 10 rebounds, including going 5-for-8 from 3-point range.”

Few athletes would seem to possess the unshakeable confidence of a top athlete like NBA star Vince Carter. One season while he was still with the Raptors, Carter returned to the rotation following a five-game absence due to injury. It was clear during the first few minutes of play that his game was suffering, his shot flat and off the mark. He missed a number of baskets until he finally banked one in off the backboard. I got to speak with him after the game and asked him about it. 

“Well, I had my mom and my agent and everyone telling me not to try to make up for five missed games right away, and just to take it easy, but I kept thinking about that and couldn’t help myself, so I was pretty hyper for the first few minutes although after a while I settled down. Thank goodness for that three-pointer I shot going in, even though it was off the glass, or else I would have really felt embarrassed.”      

Of course, every athlete has to find his or her own rhythm, but Carter was, by his own admission, feeling beset by the demands of the moment to the point of a lapse of confidence, and consequently waiting for that first shot to drop to get his confidence back.

I know that most athletes share Carter’s view (I once argued the point with tennis great Andy Roddick, who similarly professed that – even with all the championships under his belt – having a rough patch brought down his confidence). I nevertheless believe – and tell the players I work with, “DON’T BASE YOUR CONFIDENCE ON HOW YOU HAVE BEEN PLAYING IN THE PAST 10 MINUTES (or worse – the RESULTS of those past 10 minutes).  BASE YOUR CONFIDENCE ON WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN DOING THE PAST 10 YEARS… ON WHO YOU ARE AS AN ATHLETE. ”

Helping Thomas (the player I was working with) keep that in mind was a critical part of getting him back to consistent top level basketball as the season went on.  When the Butler players needed it most, their confidence gave way to stress and disappointment. As a result, they allowed their performance to determine how confident they felt, rather than find the confidence to dictate their performance.

“DON’T LET YOUR GAME DETERMINE YOUR ATTITUDE - LET YOUR ATTITUDE DETERMINE YOUR GAME” is how professional golf champion Davis Love III puts it.

It’s likely that UConn was the better team on this particular night in any event.  But Butler’s inability to match up with UConn in the second half was – I believe – in some measure, a failure in the mental area. After all, momentum in games does have a way of shifting.  But MENTALLY, where the Butler team seemed to be in the second half, put that possibility MORE AND MORE OUT OF REACH as the clock wore down. After the amazing run Butler had all season – and especially throughout the tournament – it was unfortunate to see it come down to that.

*          *          *          *          *

“When the pressure is on in big game situations, whoever is able to relax and enjoy the moment is the one who is most going to be in control.”

--Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett

HOW DECISIVE ARE YOU?

Nearly every every athlete has had days when they just seem to be a step behind.  A soccer player that I have been working with told me that on those days, he tells himself to "just shake it off," but rarely does that seem to help.  He added that something else he has tried to do in those moments is to focus on small details in practice, but noted that when he does he usually ends up overthinking things, so that doesn't help much either.

I don't think that any athlete is ever helped by trying to "shake it off."  This is too vague and general a thought and doesn't direct you to HOW to do that.  It is pretty much like wanting to go to New York but not having a map, or not even certain if you should drive, fly, or take the train.

Regarding the second idea, of focusing on particular details, Matt's instincts were good.  When you can get your mind to shift from feelings (especially if they are negative) to tasks, you are letting go - if even just for a while - of things over which you have limited control and directing your thoughts to things over which you have more control.  

Where Matt fell short was in the execution of his plan. He told me, for example, that when he has to make a decision about rushing his player or dropping back, he is uncertain as to which might be the better choice, and the brief moment in which he pauses means that he has lost the opportunity to act. By the time he decides, it's too late to do either with any effect.

To avoid making an "incorrect" decision, Matt finds himself nearly paralyzed by the inaction of uncertainty, which leads to his over-thinking things - as he mentioned - and this prevents him from shifting his overall mood and energy level which was the hoped-for goal in the first place.

To help reduce the hold which his uncertainty and indecision had on him involved helping Matt address his fears of making a "wrong" decision.

I asked Matt to consider replacing over-thinking with on-the-spot decisions.

"What would happen if you made a decision right away? Without knowing for certain if it was the best decision?"

Matt knew that if his decision turned out to be a good one it might mean stripping his opponent of the ball or causing a turnover.  But if he made the wrong decision and missed his assignment, he would probably end up getting yelled at by his coach.

While considering this possibly unpleasant consequence, Matt said that nevertheless he could use his coach's comments to learn and get better.

By accepting in advance the possibility that he MIGHT make the "wrong" decision, but that he could live with that, Matt was taking a huge step toward overcoming the fears that kept him on the "uncertainty" side of the UNCERTAINTY - DECISIVENESS scale.

I suggested three steps Matt could take to strengthen his decisiveness:
First, I proposed that he write down his intent to be decisive in practice during the coming week, and post this somewhere that he would see it repeatedly throughout the day.

Next, I instructed Matt to spend 5-10 minutes every day visualizing situations where he would (or did) have to make a decision and see himself in those situations being decisive - and then picturing how the moment might play itself out (what would be the consequences of whatever move he would make).

Finally, I suggested to Matt that on those occasions where his coach might yell at him, try to focus on the CONTENT of what was being said (what he can learn from to make better decisions in the future) over the WAY it was being said. He could even imagine that the words were being said to him by his girlfriend or a close family member. By keeping the larger picture in mind and remembering that each mistake is an occasion to gain more experience can help him in his long-term goal of becoming more decisive. He summed it up by saying, "When I feel more comfortable, I will trust my decisions more."

Ironically, the path to greater comfort leads through some stopping points that involve LESS comfort.  But the goal that Matt holds out to himself can serve him well as he works on his decision-making skills.  

MARCH MADNESS MINDSET

TIME TO TRIM THE FAT

When teams make it to the NCAA Tournament in March, they are preparing to play their best and advance to live another day.  One approach held by many of the best coaches is something I have been helping players with throughout my years of mental coaching.  This approach is likely to make a difference in your game as well.

Each summer, the best young European basketball players take part in the European U-20 Men's Basketball Championships, where junior national teams from all of Europe compete for top honors.  Once I was talking with one of the coaches about his team’s performance in the first rounds of competition, and the discussion led to the performance of one of the team’s leading players, their “go to” big man who in-season was playing at an ACC school. 

   “He is capable of doing a lot, and we really depend on him, but in the past couple of games he has fallen short of expectations,” the coach told me.

   As we discussed the situation further, one aspect that came to light was that a number of different tasks were being laid upon this player’s shoulders, clearly too many for him to successfully handle. It felt like the player was trying to balance too many balls in the air (so to speak).  I asked the coach what he thought about scaling down the assignments he was placing on this player.  “Less is more” was what I tried to sell the coach on.

             Narrowing one’s focus down once it’s time to go out and compete helps give an athlete one of the most critical things he/she can carry with him/her into competition: a sense of control.  Having fewer things to worry about makes the assignment feel more manageable, so that the athlete feels empowered rather than overwhelmed.

   Most players will have a wide range of thoughts going through their mind on the day of a game, from the time they get up that day and on to having their pre-game meal.  Later, arriving at the gym, an experienced player will put some of those thoughts out of his mind and start to narrow his focus.  As the player changes into his uniform, goes through warm-ups and then the team stretch …. as time draws closer to the tip-off, the athlete’s focus will continue to narrow down, in the manner of a funnel (broad at the top, narrow at the bottom).  By the time of the opening tip, a veteran athlete’s focus has narrowed down to ONE specific thought or intention. (For example, one post player I work with goes into games with the thought "Don't force things - just trust myself." Another reminds himself to go up high when he is going after rebounds as the key thought he takes with him into games.)

   At the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, U.S. downhill skier Tommy Moe surprised everyone when he took the gold medal.  Moe, who beat out the competition, had never won an international event in his career. When asked afterwards about his performance, Moe commented: I just kept my thoughts real simple. I wanted to focus on making my turns with a strong edge on the outside ski, and keeping my hands forward. I knew if I concentrated on those two things, I would ski fast. That’s all I wanted to do.”

   Bob McKillop, the highly respected men’s basketball coach at Davidson College (6 times conference Coach of the Year and 2008 national Coach of the Year) cites the competitive benefit of keeping things simple when the pressure is on, offering the following example:

   By the time you get to post-season play and the NCAA tournament, and you’ve got to prepare for whoever your opponent might be, that’s a time to strip your game down to the key elements – the things you’ve become good at during the season – and let go of the rest, the average stuff and the things you’ve just kind of experimented with. 

   Another veteran coach, Santa Clara’s Herb Sendek (ex North Carolina State and Arizona State) concurs, noting, “Sometimes I find that we go into a game and have to really simplify our offensive plan by using just a part of the whole – the part that we think will be most effective against our opponent – and really focusing on that part.  I think you have to go with certain reads on the game, instead of trying to cover every type of situation.  The idea is to ‘trim the fat’ and make it simple so that your guys aren’t compromising their highest level of play.”

   Jack Nicklaus, one of the greatest golfers of all time, offered similar advice with regard to getting the ideal swing off: “Boil down your swing thoughts to the simplest two or three that have worked for you in the past.” Nicklaus himself came up with two ideas – “Head still” and “Complete the backswing” – and sticking with those two thoughts in crunch time was how he got the job done.

   After speaking with the European coach of that men’s Under-20 team, he went into the next day’s game asking this player to concentrate chiefly on rebounding, and secondarily to look to score inside if the opportunity presented itself.  Giving the player a more narrow focus gave him a more manageable task… and helped him to feel MORE IN CONTROL.  He was no longer being asked to keep too many balls in the air.  And as a result, his game productivity returned to top form, and he had one of his best games in the tournament, helping his team advance to the medal round of play.

  

Post Script:  Here is what one player wrote me after I sent him the above article:

"I wanted to tell you, the idea you had of focusing on just one thing has been really useful for me. I have had three of my best games and two full weeks of great practices – and it’s all due to this idea of one thought! I just keep telling myself to be an animal.  That’s it… I just say 'Be aggressive and be an animal' and that thought is what makes me able to play with aggressiveness and energy.  Because of that I am able to not only play well but to instill confidence in myself and not only that but in my coaches and teammates as well! They want to get me the ball because I showed them what I can do once it is in my hands.  All this success is because of that one word. So thank you!! I really appreciate the ideas that you keep sharing with me.”

Shortly after writing to tell me this, this player had his first double-double, followed by his first 20-point game.

Another player wrote to say:  “I used your idea in a recent game to focus only on defense and nothing more and I played well. I didn’t allow my opponent to get the ball – or when he got it I defended his shots so he couldn’t get them off and even blocked some of them.  As it turned out, on offense and on rebounding things went well for me also because of the confidence this idea helped me to maintain. I will continue to use this strategy. Thanks!!"

© 2017 by Dr. Mitchell Smith.  All Rights Reserved.