Developing Mental Toughness

Becoming a player involves multiple tempering steps - learning the game, developing your athleticism, refining technical skills from stance, ballhandling, and shooting, and improving your emotional and psychological response to stress and adversity. 

In this article, Eric Barker provides detailed, stepwise instructions on approaches to improving your mental toughness. 

Summary:

• Positive self-talk
• Goal setting (I'd call this progress management)
• Visualization ("Neurolinguistic programming" in medical terms)
• Simulations (Advanced preparation)

An excerpt:

The SEAL experience, this constant learning, constantly not being satisfied. That’s one of the interesting things about the community: you never feel like you’ve got it all figured out. If you do feel like you figured it out, you probably aren’t doing it right. If you’re not willing to learn from other people then frankly you’re not doing all you need to do to be the best operator you can possibly be. It’s a culture of constant self-improvement and constant measurement of how you’re doing.

My example: 

As a young player, I struggled with shooting...I had a slow release, got shots blocked, and lacked confidence (self-trust) offensively. Back in the early seventies, there were far fewer resources for personal development. I developed three approaches to improve these flaws. 

• To improve quickness of release, in the lane facing the basket, I would toss the ball over my head, catch it on the bounce, pivot and shoot as quickly as possible. Initially, I concerned myself with proper form and quickness more than accuracy. I'd work on this in sets of fifty shots. 
• To reduce the blocked shots, I attached a tennis racket to a step ladder and force myself to shoot over that 'defender' who always challenged the shot. 
• To improve accuracy, I played 'around the world' using ten spots 'out' and 'in', with the goal of going 'around the world' in the minimum (twenty) shots and completing the course (out and in) as quickly as possible. 

I'd be kidding you if I reported that I was a great high school player. But a consistent process provided me with deliberate practice and enough confidence to have some success, shooting over fifty percent from the field as a senior and helping our team get to the Division 1 state semifinals. 

Dreaming big is helpful, but deliberate practice is critical to develop both your basketball 'hardware' and 'software'. Today, my goal is helping young players achieve their potential, to develop their craft and learn the game that has given so much to so many.