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mental preparation TIPS
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HOOPZONE
Player Development

mentalThe saying goes "The game of basketball is 90% mental and 10% physical." You ask, "Well,  what does that mean?" Basketball has little to do with height, strength, moves and so forth. It's about how quickly you can think, what you’re thinking about and how you're thinking. Your brain is the strongest muscle in your body. It controls everything that you do. It controls how you feel when you wake up in the morning and it controls your knowledge base and the rest of your body. Without a good mental attitude your game just will not be where you really want it to be.

For example if someone is guarding you and they are really tough, and intimidating they will usually " get in your head" telling you your not good enough, taunting you. The moment you think, they are right, you give up mentally and that's when they steal the ball from you and go full court to score. This happens because you allowed someone to tap into your strongest muscle and you there fore lost the battle of mental toughness, no matter if your the fastest, strongest, and " greatest " player on the team. Once you let someone get into your head and negatively affect your game, you have lost.

You are your biggest competition and you are the one that determines if you are good enough or not. Of course skills are important, like I said it’s a 90-10 difference. But even if you have all those skills, if you’re not mentally tough, it just won’t matter.

How do you overcome and be mentally tough at all times? Actually it takes practice. It’s not that easy staying positive and thinking powerful good thoughts, but once you get used to it, it will be come a daily habit. You literally have to work on your mental toughness every day if you want to be a great player. I'm not saying just stand in front of a mirror and say I am a great basketball player and no one can beat me, I mean that is a great start but it also comes from educating your self in the game, constantly practicing by your self to improve your confidence and playing with others as well.

Some players every basket that they miss they drop their shoulders and get mad, not with anyone else but themselves. This takes the player so far out of their game that it becomes a big problem in playing. Get your head back in the game, the coach yells. Don’t be upset when you miss a basket, just go get the ball back. Once you start doing the simple things like hustling back on D after a brick, you’ll begin to understand that your thoughts therefore created your actions.

Below you will find some great ideas for things you can do to improve your mental toughness.

 

H O O P E R X M E N T A LX T I P S

MENTAL REHEARSAL
Mental Rehearsal: This is almost as important as practicing the action itself. The brain patterns during mental rehearsal of an action are the same as those when preparing for the action before the motor skill is selected, so the more you mentally rehearse a shot, the quicker and easier it will be to prepare to carry out the shot.

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
Always believe in yourself. If you think you can`t do it, you aren`t going to . When shooting, believe its going in and it will have a better a chance. 

ROLE MODEL
Be the role model your team needs of poise and self control. Players will feed off of you and draw confidence from your mental toughness.

NO EXCUSES
Do not allow anyone to accept or make excuses, encourage all to give it their best..

FOREGET IT AND DRIVE ON
If you make a mistake, recognize it, admit it, learn from it so that it doesn't happen again. After that forget it so that it doesn't affect any more plays.

YOUR KEY WORDS
Use key words to focus on mental toughness and what is happening next in the game. A simple phrase such as "Play through it!" can be your teams signal that everyone needs to get on to the next play.

SEE IT
Always visualize success and performing the skills the correct way. A positive attitude.

NEVER SHOW IT
Bad body language, moping, pouting, displays of disgust with officials, and other negative behaviors are sure things that will lead to failure. Everyone has things that happen to them they don’t like, don’t show it, play through it.

So take your game to a whole new level by getting your head in the game, the game of mental toughness!

Time to get to work,

Coach O

 

Player Development Tips found on this page are what you'll be taught at HOOPZONE camps!

hzad

 

 

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This basketball site contains knowledge that I have learned from my experiences of playing, coaching, clinics and other colleagues. 
If you attend any of our camps you will be taught these same principles. Although I can not claim the knowledge to be all my
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