MAINTAINING COMPETITIVE FOCUS: Developing your FOCUS Muscles

FOCUS. It’s one of the critical ingredients in athletic success. Professional athletes with whom I have spoken who made the transition from college sports have all said pretty much the same thing – “At this (professional) level you can’t afford to lose focus for a moment. In college you could always get back into things, but in the pros you lose your focus for just an instant and your opponent is going to take advantage of it.”

The subject of the recent ESPN film "I hate Christian Laettner" had an almost unparalled college career at Duke University, and was named the Player of the Year in 1992, when he beat out Shaquille O’Neil for this honor.  Laettner is remembered among American college basketball fans for his famous buzzer beater winning shot against Kentucky in 1992 in the quarter-finals of the NCAA Tournament, when Duke went on to win the “Final Four” that year.

But three years earlier, as a first year player, Laettner was a young and not so successful when Duke University was in a very close game against a strong team from Arizona. Arizona was up by two with just seconds to go when Laettner was fouled. He stepped up to the foul line with a chance to tie the score. He bounced the ball a couple of times, then readied for the shot. It closed in on the rim … and then bounced out. Laettner took his second shot … and missed that one as well.

What was going through Laettner’s mind as he stood there on the foul line. “If I make these shots we can still pull off the win.” ??? … “I MUST make these shot!” ??? …“I CANNOT let my teammates down.” ??? …Whatever it was, Laettner’s focus was likely NOT on the TASK of sinking those free throws, but on the CONSEQUENCES of his succeeding or failing

Chances are – in one variation or another – you’ve been where Christian Laettner was.

WHAT IS THE KEY TO STAYING FOCUSED? AND EQUALLY IMPORTANT, HOW CAN A PLAYER MOST QUICKLY REGAIN FOCUS WHEN HE HAS LOST IT?

One of the things I most commonly hear from athletes is that when they make a mistake, miss a shot, etc… they get annoyed and it takes them out of their focus. Just the other day, I received an email from a post player telling me about a recent game when a missed defensive assignment led to shouts from his coach on the sidelines, which in turn led to a  missed shot on the other end of the court as he was focusing on his coach’s words (and worries about being taken out of the game.).

Anytime an athlete makes a mistake or misses an assignment, it is always going to present a CHALLENGE TO HIS FOCUS. Like anything else, an athlete’s focus will go up and down in the course of a game. So most of the time, the problem is to re-set your focus when it is starting to slip.

This has been the case with a tennis player I have been working with. Every time a shot went long or into the net, he would become annoyed. He would allow that feeling to stay with him, eating away at his confidence, so that he was thinking about almost anything EXCEPT having his head in the next point.

While making fewer mistakes is one way to deal with this situation, there is NO SUCH THING as an athlete who NEVER makes a mistake, so that is – at best – a very partial solution!!!

Furthermore, an athlete who plays to avoid making mistakes is not likely to improve; his play will often be tentative, rarely bold or aggressive.

Consider the attitude that helped tennis player Lindsay Davenport to win the 1998 U.S. Open:

“I didn’t want to just be out there getting the ball back in. I was going to go all out -
even if I made 60 unforced errors. I didn’t want to leave anything on the court.

One of the things that I had been working on with this athlete was HOW TO KEEP THINGS SIMPLE – both on and off the court. For example, he found that if, during practice, he decided to give his attention to one part of his game EXCLUSIVELY, he was less concerned with making mistakes in other aspects. So if, for example, he was focusing on his backhand, or coming to the net, then he was more “forgiving” of himself with respect to mistakes made in other parts of his game.

Furthermore, he found that by focusing on one aspect of his game, he would find himself making improvements in that aspect, and would notice a “SPILLOVER” effect so that the incremental confidence he began to feel would lead to stronger play and fewer mistakes IN OTHER PARTS OF HIS GAME in that same practice.

So I asked him to complete the following sentence: “I don’t care if I make mistakes as long as…”

Here is what he came up with (after I told him that a good answer would not be “as long as my opponent makes more mistakes!”)… “I don’t care if I make mistakes AS LONG AS I CAN KEEP MY FOCUS.”

IN OTHER WORDS, A MISTAKE DOES NOT NEED TO BE AN OCCASION TO GET OFF TRACK.

If anything I suggested to him that making a mistake could be an opportunity to actually strengthen his focus “muscles” in a way that would not be AS POSSIBLE if he were not making any mistakes.

Consider, after all, how we build muscle in the gym. When we lift weights, we are actually breaking down muscle tissue. Afterwards, when the tissue repairs itself, it comes back stronger than before. It is, after all, called “resistance” training. If we think of focus in the same way, then when we subject our focus to resistance (such as in making mistakes, becoming annoyed and “losing” our focus – BUT THEN WORKING TO QUICKLY REGAIN IT) we are building the “focus muscles,” making them stronger than before. The key, then, is in the “WORKING TO QUICKLY REGAIN OUR FOCUS.”

THIS INVOLVES CONSCIOUSLY DECIDING TO PUT ALL NON-RELEVANT THOUGHTS OUT OF MIND. Being annoyed at a mistake is understandable; we all experience that. But the more quickly you tell yourself to re-focus, the more effective a competitor you will be in games!!!

Consider the example given by skier Bonnie St. John Deane, silver medal winner in the 1984 Paralympics slalom. She noted that …

“In my first run of the slalom I was ahead, but then I fell down and had to get up to complete the race. In fact, the woman who won the gold medal also fell down. I knew from previous races that I could ski faster than her. But what won the gold medal for her was that she got up faster than I did after falling down. I learned that everybody falls down – but Olympic athletes get up faster, and gold medalists get up the fastest of all.”

Substitute “REGAIN FOCUS” for “getting up”, and you get the point.

NBA Hall of Famer Karl Malone once said that if you’re not willing to make mistakes you are never really going to improve as a player. Consider this, too: you are going to make mistakes. The more you are willing to develop an attitude that instead of letting the mistakes get the best of you, they can become opportunities to improve your ability to stay focused – the more competitive you are likely to become.

THE BENEFITS OF NOT TRYING SO HARD

Many athletes have told me about a game where they didn't play well and later realized that they was busy trying to make things happen and forced their game rather than let it come to them.  The following stories offer good examples of how this can cause us to become both physically and mentally tight, and the negative consequences that occur as a result.

  WISCONSIN'S SAM DEKKER had some huge games to help his team to the 2015 FINAL FOUR.  After one game he talked about some on-court struggles he had in the first half - and what helped him to turn things around:

"Well, the first half I wasn't playing up to my capabilities. I got kinda out of sync and started trying to force some stuff, and Coach took me out, and the assistants just said, hey, just keep with it; let that go. Don't try to do too much. And at halftime they said the same thing, kind of pulled me off to the side when we came out of the locker room and told me that half is over with, just play your game and be you. And when I'm myself, I can do some good things, so I just let the game come to me and just put up shots with confidence and tried to be a little more aggressive."

   IN THE EARLY 1960s, Bud Winter, the San Jose State University track coach, discovered one of the difficulties which kept his athletes from achieving total concentration.  Winter’s sprinters would come to the track and, seemingly without trying, would run near record times in practice.  Often, they would be amazed by their own performance and would vow that the next time they would break the world record.

More often than not, to their great disappointment, they would run slower the second time. They would try too hard, tightening up and working against themselves.  Winter sought to alleviate the problem by asking these sprinters to run at 80-90% of their maximum effort.  This simple change in thought process kept them from tightening up.

When you are experiencing this kind of flow or concentration, you are not “working”. Instead, you have gotten so much into the immediacy of the experience – you are so into the moment – that you are simply allowing things to happen.

Your attention is directed externally to the things going on around you almost to the exclusion of any internal analytical thinking.  You are reacting so automatically that you do not have to consciously direct your body…. You are simply letting it do what it has been trained to do.      (from Athletes’ Guide to Mental Training by Robert Nideffer)

     BASEBALL HALL OF FAME PITCHER SANDY KOUFAX is one of the best to have stood on the mound.  But his first years pitching weren’t all that spectacular, with a less-than-impressive 36-38 record through the first six years of his career.  In a spring training game against the Twins in 1961, Koufax was throwing his fastball with little success, walking player after player till he had bases loaded with no outs. Catcher (and on-the-road roommate) Norm Sherry went to the mound and said, “Sandy, why don’t you take something off your fastball?  Just lay it in there,” and ran back to home plate. Koufax then pitched – strike one, strike two, strike three…. Three up, three down. At the end of the inning Sherry said to Koufax, “I don’t know if you noticed, but you just now threw harder trying NOT to than when you were trying to!” Some observers trace Koufax’s great success to that day.

     AFTER READING THE ABOVE DESCRIPTIONS, ONE BASKETBALL PLAYER PLAYING IN SPAIN WROTE TO SAY: “I have noticed that usually if I am overly concentrating on the game I usually have a bad game – but if I am just relaxed – good things seem to happen. One time this happened I don’t know where my mind was; I played really terrible and I ended up with just two points!!!  When I am relaxed and not trying so hard – and just remind myself that I am after all a capable player – good things usually happen."

     Another player wrote to say: “This article really hit home. I have this tendency to overwork and over-think about basketball. It starts slowly with extra workouts, then extra everything lol … Next thing I know I am mentally and physically exhausted and not enjoying playing. Now that I am watching this it is definitely helping my game.   When I keep in mind that enjoying my life and my friends and family are my priority and keeping basketball in perspective this also helps a lot!”

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

WHAT IS YOUR "REBOUNDING QUOTIENT"?

I recently met with Swen Nater, who played at UCLA for legendary coach John Wooden, then went on to play a dozen or so years for the Lakers, where he became the first foreign-born player in the league to be a starter. Swen, who is the co-author of several books, including one specifically for post players, called "Playing Big" (available on Amazon.com)  told me about one of the ways that then-Lakers coach Pat Riley held the post guys accountable.

He kept data on their game rebounding by charting three things for each rebound while the player was on the court.  
(1) Was that rebound gettable? Was it one the player could or should have had?
(2) Did the player go after the rebound?
(3) Did the player actually get the rebound?

Swen explained to me that the ratio of (2) to (1) (how many of the gettable rebounds did the player go after) was a measure of EFFORT. The ratio of (3) to (2) was a measure of EFFECTIVENESS (how many of the balls that the player went after did he get)?

I recently saw a college game where the losing team's highest scoring player had one of the lowest shooting percentages.  While he was listed at the top because of ONE stat (ppg) he was not necessarily the best performer in other respects and is some ways he may have cost his time some victories by looking to shoot first and pass second.  

I like the idea of keeping other stats that don't necessarily make the box score but are a strong reflection of the QUALITY of a player's game and his contribution to both the team effort and to his own ongoing development.

I suggest that players reading this column look to  use this or similar strategies to monitor what you are doing in games to measure your own EFFORT and EFFECTIVENESS.

*As always, comments and questions are welcome: BigMan.MentalCoaching@yahoo.com

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE NORMAN DALE? (With Apologies to Simon and Garfunkel)

I had a discussion recently with members of a Division 1 basketball team who were lamenting the fact that the selfish play and me-first attitude of a number of their teammates has impacted the team's ability to win some win-able games. The things they mentioned ranged from players whose primary game-time focus is on improving their personal stats to teammates who are disrespectful to coaches (including foul language and shoving coaches). 

On two other occasions I was told by European big men on college teams that making good passes is something they always prided themselves on, but here in the States they found that if they passed the ball they weren't likely to get it back.

Five guys playing as one team – with all that entails – has on many an occasion resulted in a victory over a team with greater talent.  If I were writing this column for coaches (for so many of whom the capacity for building a team-first culture seems to be rather elusive) I would propose that the player who showed the greatest team-first mentality in a game be freed from running suicides for a week. I am pretty certain that this would send home the message.

Any fan of the movie “Hoosiers” (based on the true story of how an unlikely team from small town Milan, Indiana made it all the way to the 1954 Indiana High School basketball State Finals where they beat power house Muncie Central to win the state title) will remember how early in the film Coach Norman Dale (played by Gene Hackman) was willing to remove ANY player from the team – no matter how talented or seemingly irreplaceable – who could not or would not accept the team-first approach.  EVERY coach preaches this but how many back it up with consequential actions. Admittedly a coach's job is on the line, but most seem focused on short term gains ( a win here or there) over building a long-term core value of team success first).

Since I am writing this column for players, however, let me offer a few thoughts to those of you who find yourself in a position similar to that of the players mentioned at the outset.

While there is nothing wrong with vigilantly pursuing your own welfare, ask yourself if you are allowing the situation on your team to affect your attitude. It will be tempting to follow the norm and let your own ego needs come first, and become another player who looks to shoot first no matter the situation.  However, you can use the opportunity to become a smarter player. When you have the ball, if the best move is to shoot or drive to the hole then do that. But if the best move is pass to an open teammate then LET that prevail over the wish to take the shot.

Even if no one else notices, you will be making improvement in your decision making ability.

Another think you can do is make a check list of things that are representative of team-oriented play, and then rate yourself on those behaviors. Doing this over a period of time will heighten your awareness of these things (whether it is setting a good screen, cheering loudly from the bench, or diving for loose balls).

One thing that could prove instrumental in shifting things a bit is to take note of moments of team-oriented play by your more selfish teammate, and comment on them afterwards. It is a subtle way of reinforcing the kind of behavior you think is best for the team overall.

We all like praise and if a teammate is being praised for certain things he is likely to repeat them. Obviously you want to show some subtlety, so instead of saying something like “You are always looking to shoot but I like that you passed to John when he was open” you may say something like “That was a great pass to John that set him up perfectly for the bucket.”

Maybe there are others on the team who feel the way you do. If a couple of you are being vocal with these kinds of comments it might help. The bottom line is that complaining or feeling sorry for yourself, while understandable, is likely to underscore your feelings of being a “victim” rather than a problem solver. So staying positive is the key.

Nearly two thousand years ago the Jewish sage Hillel noted:

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me?

But if I am only for myself, what am I?”

For the athlete who believes in himself as a strong competitor and who cares about what it takes for his team to compete at their full potential, those ancient words still bear up today.

OH, THE LOWLY FREE THROW

Alan is a 7-footer who, like a lot of the bigs I work with, finds himself not getting many touches of the ball. 

It has affected his game in a number of ways. 

For one thing, it has brought his confidence down, and then on occasion when he would get a pass he would drop the ball. 

He even felt his confidence leaving him when it came to shooting free throws, even though in a game I saw him play he shot 4 for 4 from the line and his form looked pretty solid to me. Then he had people, his teammates among them, telling him why he needed to be dunking the ball so he felt pressure to do that. 

A couple of days after we spoke, I was watching a ball game on ESPN, and heard the guy calling the game say how everyone wants to dunk and gives little importance to free throws, but games are often won or lost at the free throw line. 

I reminded Alan how solid his free throw shooting was and told him to not make the mistake of losing his perspective because everyone is putting such emphasis on dunking the ball. I told him he would have his share of dunks but it would be a shame if he lost sight of the larger picture. 

 Alan emailed me to say, “You are right about the free throws. I feel like my confidence has been restored. I can’t wait to get back to practice after the Christmas break!” 

It is easy to let go of our confidence, and every mistake we make presents an opportunity for other voices to get into our head. When we step back and find a way to find our own voice – and vision – we are able to silence the other voices and restore our confidence.

LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER!

The morning news had a story of a political TV talk show which featured two political commentators, one liberal and one conservative, who happened to be brothers. 

At one point during the very heated conversation the host took a phone call from a listener … who just happened to be the men’s mother! She berated them for being so argumentative (and even said she was glad that this was the year both sons went to the in-laws for Thanksgiving … how is THAT for harsh!!! Where’s the love??) While reporting this story, one news anchor recalled a time when J.R. Rider (always known for his in-your-face style) got involved in an on-court brawl when his mother came barreling out of the stands to set him straight!! 

Although there are always times when we should heed our parents’ criticism, the fact is that the real value is in how our parents support us and encourage us. I had occasion to think of this during a recent conversation with Gary, a college senior who has been struggling in recent weeks, and reporting that the game he has loved all his life has not been so much fun lately. 

Gary is eyeing the time in the near future when he will be a professional player drawing a salary. His parents make a modest living and it means a great deal to Gary to be able to help his family out and to make a difference. But that has been weighing heavily on Gary’s mind. “I have been thinking a lot about where I would be playing and if I would make enough to take care of my family. Even though they always been very supportive I just feel the responsibility to help them out, and I am afraid that I won’t be able to do enough, which makes me insecure.” Gary was feeling both the promise and the pressure of what the future represented, but I reminded him that these worries could only get in the way on the court, which indeed was what was happening. So I told Gary that I was certain that if his parents were in the stands and they knew he was harboring these worries they would want to call a “Time Out” to tell him to get his head back in the game. 

As he readily agreed (and thought that would be kind of funny) I told him that every time he started having that worry he should picture his mother making the “T” Time Out sign. I reminded Gary that if he could keep his concern about helping his parents to the proper time and place (off court) and limit the times he gave it consideration (not every day!!) that he would find a proper way to cope with a very legitimate concern … BUT the image of his mother’s consternation would help him keep his heart in the game and restore his love of the sport. (P.S. I also reminded Gary how thrilled his parents would be at his getting his degree and preparing himself for life after basketball and a profession that would be another way to help provide for his family!)

A couple of weeks later, Gary and I spoke again, and he told me that when he thought of his parents he was mainly feeling good about making them proud of his efforts in the present rather than stressed about how he could help them in the future.

Update:  Gary did in fact go on to play in Europe, where after a challenging first year he subsequently signed with a Euroleague team where he is one of his team's leading scorers.

GROWING BEYOND YOUR COMFORT ZONE

A FEW YEARS AGO I WAS INVITED TO SPEAK TO PLAYERS at a Big Man Camp for NBA hopefuls. 

During the sessions, as I observed the ball-handling and low-post drills that were being run, I noticed a number of guys who, rather than really try to work on some of the weaker parts of their game, seemed to just be "going through the motions". In scrimmage games, these players fell back on the moves they already had, rather than take advantage of the opportunity to try to master the new moves. 

I concluded that these guys either didn't want to be bothered, or they decided they would rather "look good" (since we all look a bit awkward at first when trying out new skills) than "play good" (by developing a stronger game). Apparently, they preferred to stay in their comfort zone. We all have our comfort zone – learned behaviors that are our customary ways of handling all sorts of situations. 

Human nature being what it is, we all develop routine ways of responding to various events on the playing field or in life. These responses (like sticking to the skills we have mastered rather than giving new skills a shot) serve an important need: they help us to fend off anxiety by keeping things predictable. Staying within our comfort zone reduces our sense of stress that comes with the fear of not measuring up to the moment in trying something new, or our fear of “looking bad.” But doing so also stops us from growing and developing as players. 

Take for example, the case of Michael Chang. As one of America’s top-rated tennis players, Chang was considered a gutsy player who would run down every ball, playing to his strength as a baseline player. But at one point in mid-career, he took stock of things, and decided that in order to stay among the top-ranked players in the world, he would have to develop a net game, and he committed himself to doing so, even though it took him outside of his comfort zone. He devoted many months to this task, and understood that during this interim period – while he was looking to develop this weaker part of his game - he was likely to lose a larger number of matches than he would have liked (which cost him in terms of ranking points and tournament money). But he stuck it out, and eventually emerged a more skilled player. The resulting improvement enabled him to retain his ranking among the game’s best for several more years. 

Sometimes it's not a technical aspect of your game that needs adjusting, but a mental aspect. During his playing days as a quarterback with the Indianapolis Colts, current 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh was going through a rough patch. He attributed his on-field difficulties to the fact that he put great pressure on himself to live up to other people’s expectations. Seeing how this hampered his game-day performance, he concluded that he needed to stop demanding of himself to have perfect performances in every game and to risk just letting himself enjoy the game more - regardless of the outcome. When he was able to trust himself enough to do this, his play improved and he led the Colts through several successful seasons. To be sure, the beliefs that many athletes hold onto become powerful impediments to their venturing outside of their comfort zone. Some athletes tie their on-field performance to their sense of self-worth, and stay within their comfort zone in order to get "ego-strokes" for what they already know how to do, rather than focus on the weaker aspects of their game in order to make them better. 

They would rather go over and over the things they already do well than give up (at least for the moment) their pride, the need to look good to teammates, coaches, etc. The question is: where will that get them….. or you? When Steve Kerr graduated from the University of Arizona, few people believed he could make it in the NBA. The sharpshooting guard who played 15 seasons in the league, winning 5 championship rings and setting an NBA record for all-time 3-point field goal percentage (45.4%) once commented, "The thing that helped me find success in the NBA wasn't so much my ability as an outside shooter, but the fact that I was constantly working on the weak parts of my game.” Along the same lines, one-time Kerr teammate Michael Jordan similarly noted that each summer, he isolated a part of his game that needed improvement, and focused on strengthening that aspect. If Jordan, of all people, was willing to make that effort, is there a single athlete in the world who can afford to take a pass? Aside from acquiring the skills you need to be competitive at the highest levels in your own sport, forming the habit of accepting new challenges and the willingness to grow beyond your comfort zone, makes you not only a stronger athlete, but – as life brings new challenges along the way – a stronger human being.