"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