By Zane Josie
Basketball is as much a mental sport as it is a physical one. Your mindset is essential to ensuring that you play your best game. You can’t get too down on yourself if you make a mistake as this will set the tone for the rest of your game.
Conversely, you must focus on staying positive throughout any match situation. All players make mistakes, miss shots, lose the ball to the opposition – the key is keeping your head up and moving on!
With this in mind, here are five essential tips for playing your best mental game:
- Consistency is key
Pick up your Adelaide 36ers basketball, because we are going to start by talking about consistency. You should maintain a consistent pre-game setup to ensure that you can go into each game like you did the last. Whether this means taking some time to meditate, listen to your favourite music or do some external warmups, you will find that consistency helps you get in the right mindset with each game!
- Know the stakes
Whether it’s an innocuous pre-season warmup game – or an imperative playoff game against your bitter season rivals – it’s important to understand the stakes of each game. Understanding the game’s importance will help you mentally prepare for the game. Go through some important visualisation basketball techniques to ensure that you are ready for what awaits you on court – it will help you comprehend what needs to be done to get ahead on the scoreboard!
- Don’t focus on scoring
Basketball is as much about fitting into your role in the team as it is finding the net. Therefore, you focus too hard on shooting every time you get near the ball. Sure, we all want to nail that match-winning three pointer, but even the world’s best shooters nail less than 50% of their shots. Therefore, we should focus on our role in the team and working the ball towards the best shooting situation possible. This is the way professional teams put numbers on the board – finding the perfect opportunity and not just hurling it towards the net!
- Think about how you work in the team
To the uninitiated, basketball may look like a bunch of players running around in random positions on a court, trying to work their way to the new in any way they can. But we both know that it is a well-orchestrated situation in which you and your teammates work together to find the perfect opening for a shot. Therefore, it’s important to think about your role in the team and how you help create these openings. And, hey, perhaps you are the one to receive the ball when the opportunity presents itself.
- Stay in the moment
It’s easy to dwell on a missed shot. We think we’ve let down the team and even created an opening for the opposition to counter. But, in reality, that’s the game, and you shouldn’t get stuck in what happened 30 seconds ago. Focus on your breath whilst being mindful about your teammates’ positions. If you make a mistake – so what! Players make mistakes just as people make mistakes and your game is never going to be perfect.
So, be sure to focus on these mental elements of the sports game as they are critical to ensuring that you will optimise your play and help your team. Stay present and don’t dwell on any mistakes and you will continue to be a consistent member of your team!
