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Monday, March 31, 2025

Basketball - High, Low, Gratitude and More

"The mental to the physical in basketball is four to one." - Coach Bob Knight

Ask players about their strategies to fortify their mental game. Entrepreneur Sara Blakely shared in her MasterClass that her father asked the children each Saturday dinner, "what have you failed at this week?" Failure is a companion on life's journey. 

Examine a few well-known mental techniques:

1) Visualization. See yourself succeeding. In "Ten-Minute Toughness," Jason Selk proposed a three minute mental "highlight reel." Think about your domain-specific successes.

2) Mindfulness. Most professional athletes and teams have a mindfulness program. Mindfulness reduces stress hormones, increases focus, and decreases anxiety and depression. 

3) Self-talk. We behave as we believe. Train ourselves to deliver positive thoughts, positive identity and performance statements. 

4) Body positioning. Expansive body positioning is controversial. Studies by Amy Cuddy show that increases in testosterone and decreases in cortisol (stress hormone) occurred after two-minute expanded body positioning. 

Actionable: a three minute mindful "body scan" from Chat GPT

A three-minute body scan can be a powerful tool for athletes to enhance performance, recovery, and mental focus. Though often associated with mindfulness practices, a quick body scan is particularly useful in sports because it helps athletes develop body awareness, reduce tension, and improve movement efficiency. Here’s how:

1. Heightened Body Awareness

A short body scan encourages athletes to check in with their physical state—where they feel strong, where they feel tight, and how their body is positioned. This awareness helps with injury prevention by identifying small discomforts before they become significant issues.

2. Enhanced Recovery

By systematically relaxing different muscle groups, athletes can release tension built up from training or competition. A brief scan can promote muscle relaxation and circulation, aiding in recovery between efforts.

3. Improved Movement Efficiency

Athletes often carry unconscious tension in areas like the shoulders, jaw, or lower back. A quick scan helps detect these inefficiencies, allowing them to move with greater ease and coordination.

4. Increased Focus and Readiness

A body scan doubles as a mental reset, helping athletes clear distractions and direct attention to their bodies before a game or practice. This can be especially useful in high-pressure moments.

5. Stress and Anxiety Regulation

By pairing the scan with controlled breathing, athletes activate their parasympathetic nervous system, reducing stress and fostering composure.

How to Implement a Three-Minute Body Scan

  1. Find a quiet space (or use it courtside or in a locker room).

  2. Close the eyes (if possible) and take slow breaths.

  3. Move attention from head to toe (or vice versa), scanning for tension, discomfort, or asymmetry.

  4. Release tension where needed, adjust posture, and refocus.

  5. Finish with a deep breath and a moment of intention-setting.

Each evening review the day for event highs, lows, and gratitude. Highs reinforce our capabilities. Lows allow us to make physical and mental changes. A gratitude practice increases our motivation, resilience and positive culture. Shawn Achor advised the '21-day Gratitude Challenge'. Write down three things each night for which we are grateful for three weeks and review after three weeks. 

Don't double down. Pressure to perform often becomes anxiety. Anxiety can translate to mental or physical mistakes, tentative play, or sequences of errors. Think about how often one mistake (e.g. a turnover) turns into a second (frustration foul). Don't allow drops of blood to become torrential.

Pressure degrades performance.  


Use more tools to reduce anxiety and improve play. 

Lagniappe. Great players do the work. 

Lagniappe 2. Lee Child explains Jack Reacher's mentality in Never Go Back. "When it comes to fear, my DNA is the same as anyone else’s. I trained myself, that’s all. To turn fear into aggression, automatically."

Lagniappe 3. Everything that matters requires quality decisions. 
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