MISSY TRAVERSI Elite Basketball Training

I recently read a quote from John Calipari, the coach of the Memphis Tigers, regarding the foul shooting of his team in last year’s National Championship game. His team missed 4 of 5 in the last 75 seconds and allowed Kansas to tie the game and go into overtime. Memphis lost in OT. “When a kid goes 1 for 5 [in a game], I’ll say to the team, ‘O.K., he’s taken 3,500 free throws and made 2,900 [in practice] — how do you go 1 for 5? It’s all mental. You’re thinking too much. That’s the only reason you’re missing.’ ” As a Sports Mental Performance Coach I completely agree with him. However, this quote is an example of what I see as one of the biggest issues that’s NOT being dealt with in sport performance.

Coach Cal is absolutely a GREAT coach, yet what did he do to help his player (team) with this “all mental” problem? He handed this “problem” over to them and, in theory, said, “I’ve identified the problem now you correct it.” Coach Cal is not alone. When it comes to these issues most coaches do the same exact thing. I know that I had coaches that did this same thing and I’m sure that many of you have as well. So, now, the player not ONLY knows that he missed the shots, but now has the pressure of having to fix it and has no idea what to do. Additionally, the player does not have any of the skills needed in order to make a change for the positive. This compounds the stress and anxiety for the next time that he/she has to shoot a pressure foul shot. So instead of helping it actually ends up hurting the athlete’s performance. Conversely, would any coach expect their players to figure out how to attack a tough match-up zone without ever explaining HOW to do it? The answer is an absolute “no”.

If you, a teammate, or your entire team, have ever faced this discrepancy between “practice” foul shooting percentage and “game” foul shooting percentage you know how painful it can be. It can be the difference between a win or lose, making the playoffs or not, or, in Memphis’ case, even winning or losing the National Championship. However, there is an exact set of skills that can be used in order to improve and erase this “condition”. Learning to focus on the correct things and completely getting rid of thoughts that increase stress and anxiety are essential. When stress and anxiety are high the body’s physiological response is to tighten. This inevitably has a negative impact on fine motor skills. Fortunately, the skills needed are absolutely learn-able.

If the player knows how to stay in the moment, and is able to distinguish between the “controllable” and “uncontrollable” their success will increase. The “mental” side of performance disappears and “muscle memory” takes over. If you know that these skills can be learned and improved on, does it make any sense to NOT work on them? As a player or coach it seems counterproductive not mastering these skills in order to maximize personal and team performance.

Missy Traversi and Elite Basketball Training understands the importance of the mental side of sport performance. Coach Cal could have done more then just identify the problem, and you can too!

_________________________________________________________________
Stuart Singer, M.Ed., is the Director of WellPerformance, a Mental Performance Coaching and Consulting practice. For more information regarding this topic he can be contacted at ssinger@wellperformancecoach.com