TRYING OUT FOR NATIONAL TEAMS AND PRO CLUBS - PART 1

Few opportunities in life come without some measure of stress.  This is particularly true when it comes to basketball players who are looking to get a spot on their national team, playing in a showcase camp, or trying out for a pro club.

Take the case of Michael, who has been invited to try out for his country's national team for Eurobasket play. Michael had previously been a member of his U20 team two years' running. 

But when it came to trying for the senior team, he felt a great deal of pressure.

"It can be tough, with everyone competing for those spots. With my desire to be on the team, I worry what the coaches are thinking. And I worry about what the other guys are thinking of my play, too."

The paradox of Michael's situation is that the very goal that motivates him is also the thing that gets in his way. He wants to make the team, but the worries that this generates cause him to doubt his abilities to rise to the occasion and keep him from playing at his best.

Perhaps nothing demonstrates this better than what happened on a previous occasion. After sub-standard play, it became readily apparent that Michael was out of consideration for a spot on the team. At that point he said to himself, "Oh well, f*** it!" and then went out and played great basketball. Once the worries of whether or not he would get selected for the team were out of the equation, Michael was rid of the stress that had gotten between him and his abilities.

So I helped Michael develop a better approach by way of the following analogy.  I told him to think of watching TV.  Let's say he is watching golf on one channel. But then he switches to basketball on a different channel. Once he is on the basketball channel he can no longer follow the golf match.

I told him to think of his motivation to make the team as the golf channel. The motivation includes thinking about making the team, pushing himself to be in the best physical condition, working on some of his moves and shots, etc.

However, once he is in the tryout camp, he will be better of by changing to the other channel (and no longer going back to the first channel) where the goal is to play in the moment as a fierce competitor who is also having fun - without reference to the outcome of his play (just as when he played with the attitude of "F*** it" he was not thinking about any outcome and this allowed him to be focused just on playing).

In  order to succeed at this strategy of being exclusively on one channel, I suggested that Michael use visualization skills to see himself doing this successfully, including getting back on track when he found himself entertaining worries about what the coach or other guys were thinking about how he was playing. I recommended that he do this with enough frequency that he would be able to do it for real when he was at the national team camp.

By focusing on the quality of his play rather than the outcome, and by setting as the goal to play as a fierce competitor and have fun, Michael could more easily rid himself of the worry that got in the way of full use of his talents and abilities.

ATHLETES WHO PASS ON A GOOD THING

As a sport psychologist I am biased about the value of the services offered by me and my colleagues. Of course, I have the Thank you’s of the many athletes I have helped, and a high number of Olympic athletes employ the help of sport psychology to prepare them for competition on the highest stage in sports.

I am always curious when athletes (and coaches, too!) elect NOT to work with me as to why they would pass on a proven service. When I told one basketball player that I could help him pinpoint some of the mental areas where improvement would have a near immediate pay off, he replied, “That’s okay; I’ll just work on EVERYTHING.”  Which to me meant he would actually work on NOTHING.

I have had many players tell me they can’t afford my services. I have worked with players for free, and the moment (after several sessions) when I tell them I really need to start charging for continued work, they are “out the door.”  I have told other players that I would charge them as little as 5 Euros/$10 just to just get them on board with the benefits of what I have to offer and they still say they can’t do it… and you know these guys easily spend double that without batting an eye on a snack or a movie.

Recently I have been coming across another reason guys don’t take advantage of this.  Last summer I ran a Big Man Camp in Europe with former Detroit Pistons “Bad Boy” Rick Mahorn.  The camp was very successful (as proof, every single guy from last summer plans to come back AND they all asked to make the camp longer this year!) and Rick did a phenomenal job. Apart from his teaching and drills, his playing experience that he shared with the guys was a treasure.

(The fact that this is the only high level basketball camp that includes mental coaching is worth mentioning – though I understand that Rick – and not me – is the primary attraction!!)

Several European players, including guys playing in U.S. colleges during the season, told me that they have a personal coach they work with during the summer.  While this can be valuable, in my estimation what this kind of work primarily does is help guys execute better IN PRACTICE!!!  It is NO GUARANTEE of how they are going to perform IN GAMES – WHEN IT MATTERS!!

In my opinion… a big reason that an athlete would not take advantage of a situation that can help him step up his game is that he is NOT READY TO VENTURE OUTSIDE OF HIS COMFORT ZONE.  Working with his personal coach is kind of a predictable affair. It is kind of like when trainers say that after a while if you run the same distance at the same speed day after day your body adjusts and the continued benefit becomes increasingly minimal.

Sure, venturing outside of our comfort zone can be uncomfortable… but I have never talked to an athlete who regretted having done so! Hmmmmmmmmmm……

So what do you think? 

SEE THE NEXT ENTRY ON THIS BLOG… “Getting Out Of Your Comfort Zone” … to help you explore some of your own possible resistance to taking steps that could help YOU to step up your game. 

GETTING OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

REFLECTIONS ON TAKING YOUR GAME UP TO THE NEXT LEVEL

A few years ago I was invited to speak to players at a Big Man’s 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 keep life predictable. Staying within our comfort zone reduces our sense of stress that comes with the fear of not measuring up to the moment, our fear of “looking bad”, or the anxiety that we experience when we don’t feel in control.  

   But doing so also stops us from growing and developing.

  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. 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. NFL coach Jim Harbaugh, struggling during his playing days as the Indianapolis Colts’ starting quarterback, 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 in practice 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 Warriors' head coach 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, a one-time Kerr teammate by the name of 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.

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

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.