How To Bounce Back from Missed Shots, Mistakes, and Failure in Basketball

Missing shots, making mistakes, dealing with adversity in difficult situations and failure in games are stuff that every single player deals with. But the most important thing is not the fact that this stuff happens, but how you respond to it. The difference between average players and great players isn't whether or not adversity and difficulty and failure happens. It's how they respond to it and what they do to bounce back. So if you've ever let a missed shot or a turnover or a bad play or ruin your confidence, ruin your mindset, stick with me. I'm going to go through some ways that you can build unshakable confidence, Learn how to stay focused and continue to believe in yourself and play your best even when things are going wrong. Let's get into it. So, as a coach, I have a different view of the game than players have. And I think it's important for players to understand that they have to sometimes look outside the scope of what they can see. What I mean is that you have to almost think about viewing your situation like you were viewing it through the eyes of a hawk. Right? You are seeing your situation through, you know, your own lens, which is very limited. Right? You only see what's directly around you. Now imagine you go 200ft up in the air like you're a Hawk. All of a sudden, you can see miles and miles in all directions, and you get a much bigger picture of what's actually happening, what's actually going on. And I think it's important sometimes that we take a step back and view things that way. And. And that's ultimately what I want to give you through this video. It's just a different perspective and understanding of how you actually should approach handling failure and mistakes and struggles that happen throughout a game. Right? This is probably the most important thing to being a successful player. I. I've been around so many great players who, as soon as they miss a shot, they turn the ball over, the ref makes a bad call, they implode, they take themselves out of the game mentally, and they play way worse than they should. And. And many times these are players who are super talented, and it really. I watch them waste their talent away and waste their ability away, or it could be a player who is. You know, they put in a ton of work over the offseason trying to earn a starting spot or earn a scholarship opportunity or, you know, achieve this or achieve that for their team. And I watch them essentially sabotage themselves, and they're so close to getting it, but because they can't handle difficulty, they can't handle missing shots, making mistakes, they. They're never able to achieve those goals that they work so hard to get. So I want to make sure today that you have the necessary mental fortitude to be able to handle these things. Not just handle it, but also be able to elevate your game when you're faced with adversity, when you're faced with struggles and failures. So I think the first thing to understand is the mindset shift you need to make, which is that the single most important thing for you is to have belief in yourself. Players get so up and down, right? And as cliche as it sounds, the most like, like one of the most valuable skills you can have is just the ability to stay steady, right? So you're never too high because you play well and you're never too low because you play poorly, right? The players who are constantly second guessing themselves, what does coach think? What do my teammates think? What do the people in the stands think? Because they had a bad game or because they had a bad practice or because of this or because of that. Those are the players who are going to struggle to be consistent. Not because of anybody else's thoughts or because of what their coaches might think or do, their coaches might do. Many times players are so stuck looking for validation and looking to be constantly reassured that they're doing the right things, that they're playing well, this and that and the third. The important thing to understand is that things can change for you literally in a day, right? You can have a terrible week of practice, you can play three straight terrible games. But, but as soon as you have one good game, one good practice, the mindset of your coaches, of your teammates can completely shift, right? All it takes is for you to get into one game and play well and all of a sudden you're playing way more that game. And maybe you have a great game and people are going to remember that and going forward. That's the thought right there, okay? There's going to have, there's going to be good, is going to be bad days. Most important thing is that you just keep showing up and keep giving your best every single day. Because as frustrating as it can be in the moment where you feel like you're not playing well, you, you're struggling. If you just focus on bringing it every single day, as soon as you have that one good day or that one good moment, that's going to change the thought for everybody on your team right there. And so that's an important thing to keep in mind. You can't lose that belief in yourself, and you can't lose that ability to just show up and do it again and show up and try again the next day, okay? The single most important thing for you to have is belief in yourself. And the second thing that's important to understand is that you want to allow the law of averages to work for you, okay? So I say this to all my players, especially players who have put in all the work. Maybe they're a really good shooter or really good at something. Maybe they're a really good driver. Whatever the case may be, I'm constantly reminding them that they have to let the law of averages work for them. What the law of averages says is that essentially everything is going to average out. You're going to have your really great days, your really bad days. At the end of the day, you're. Everything is going to go back to whatever the average is, right? So I say this to my players who are good shooters, for example, they have a bad shooting day or a bad shooting quarter, right? Hey, you're. You're a good shooter, meaning on average, you're going to be good. That means there's going to be times where you're going to be really, really, really bad. But on the flip side, because we have to balance it back out to get to the average of you being good, that means it's also going to be. Is where you're going to be really, really, really, really good as a shooter, too, okay? So you have to be able to work through those moments where you're bad, because that means that there's going to be an equal and opposite force that's going to balance it out, Meaning you're going to have a day where you're going to be really, really good, too. So that's an important thing to understand, right? If you know, like, hey, I'm a good shooter, I'm capable of doing this, doing that, you're not going to lose that overnight, right? It's not going to just go away. Eventually you're going to have a performance that comes along that's going to balance that out so that you go back to whatever you are, right? Why? It's why it's so important that you put in the work to get to that point where you feel like you're good and you have the ability to do something. But then once you've gotten there, it's important that you, like I just mentioned, you just keep showing up. And when you do those things, eventually you're let the law of averages work for you. And you're going to have a really, really good day. Really, really good shooting performance, really, really good practice, whatever the case may be, that's going to take you back to that level right there. But the only way that you can stop that from working for you is by stopping your attempts of those things. If you stop shooting, the law of averages can't work for you because you're not putting up the attempts still, right? If you stop driving in the basket, well, the law of averages won't work for you. If you stop giving effort at practice or you stop giving your best effort at practice, the law of averages won't work out for you, right? The one thing you control is showing up and giving effort. That's what you control. And when you do that every single day, eventually the law of average will take care of everything for you, and it's going to work that out. The third thing going with that is that one big thing that holds players back and that keeps them stuck when they make mistakes and. And keeps them frustrated and prevents them from playing well and bouncing back, is that they allow things out of their control to be where their focus is. So an obvious one is like, they allow the calls that are. That the referees make to completely change their mindset, right? They might feel like the ref missed a call and now they're just upset about the call for the next two quarters. And because of that, they can't really focus on giving their best effort and doing the best, doing the most they can to win right there because they're still so caught up in what the ref called or what the ref didn't call, okay? So getting past that, you'll never have control over those things. You have to be able to get past those things quickly. Then the next thing, and a lot of players don't even realize this. And sometimes I say, and players like, well, that's not true, but it actually is. You don't control the ball going in, right? You can do everything perfect, and someone could come out of nowhere, make a great play, and block your shot, right? You put the ball up perfectly. It was on track to go in, and someone blocked it, right? You might be in a gym and the rims a little messed up, and it's a quarter inch too high or too low. And because of that, in a different gym, you would have made it, but in this gym, you missed it or the air conditioning's on and there was a little bit of a draft. And in another gym, you would have made it. In this gym, you didn't make it. Right. Sometimes you, you play at a, at a gym and the, the, the rims are really soft and forgiving and you're going to get a bounce. And other gyms, the, the refs are, the rims are really unforgiving. You won't get a bounce. So you might make a shot in one gym and not in the other gym. Right. It has nothing to do with you. It's, it's, it's things that are outside of your control. So at the end of the day, even shot making is not something that you really control. Now you can give yourself the best chance of making it by putting in work and, and all those sorts of things to become a better shot maker. Right. Obviously, those things we want to do and then we allow the law of averages to work for ourselves. But even when everything that you do is perfect, you're still going to miss shots, right? The best shooter of all time, Steph Curry, has games where he's terrible, where he goes over 13 from 3, right? So there's no. That's one thing that you don't control is the actual. Does the ball go in? Right. Sometimes you just miss. So it's important again that we go back to the only thing that we do control, which is showing up, giving your best effort, and keeping a positive mindset as you move forward. Right? It's really important that you keep yourself focused on saying, hey, okay, I'm taking good shots. I'm doing the right things. I just got to focus on playing hard on defense. I got to focus on making the right reads on offense and setting good screens and cutting hard and doing all the things that I can control. And then eventually, again, as I keep on playing hard, I'm going to let the law of averages work for me. And I know I'm going to make shots eventually, right? It's going to happen. But I got to make sure my focus isn't necessarily on that, but it's on doing the things that I control, which is my effort, which is showing up, which is doing the right things over and over again. And then the last thing going with that is that the most successful players are the ones who spend the most amount of time in the present moment. Again, when we talk about players who get so caught up in what the ref called or didn't call or the shots that they've missed, the turnovers they've had, that's them being stuck in the past, right? And you can't live in the past because then you get into a super depressed Negative mode about what's happened, and it affects what you're doing right now. It's going to make you play not quite as hard. It's going to allow you to not play with quite as much confidence as maybe you normally play with or you could play with. Right? When we're focused on what's happened negatively in the past, right there. So we can't live there. We also can't live in the future where we're so focused on, well, what if I missed the shot? Is coaching to take me out? What if I turn the ball over again? Is coach going to take me out? Or what if this guy beats me? You know, if I don't play well today, am I going to lose my minutes? Am I going to lose my starting spot? Well, if we don't win this game today, then all of a sudden, you know, what if we don't make the play? Like, if you're stuck focusing on what could go wrong or what could happen again, you're not putting all of your effort into the one thing you control, which is the present moment, and your effort in that present moment right there. So two things you can do to get yourself back to that present moment, because it can be difficult, right? You get super emotional and worked up when you make a mistake, or you get frustrated because the ref made a bad call, you're struggling to shoot the ball, whatever the case may be. Two things you can do to help yourself get back into the present moment and think about just being able to feel exactly where your feet are, right? Feel your feet in your shoes. That's where we want to get to. That's how we know we're in the present moment. And the first thing is just taking what's called a centering breath, right? So generally what we're going to do is we're going to breathe in for about four seconds. We're going to hold it for like two, and then we're going to exhale for like six seconds. All this is going to do is going to activate that parasympathetic nervous state system, which is going to allow us to calm down and again, just kind of like center ourselves and bring ourselves back into the present moment where we're just feeling our breath. And then we can focus on just being where we are and doing the best in the spot that we're in. So that's that first thing in for four seconds through your nose. Hold it out for six seconds through your nose again right there. And anytime when you're in a game, you Have a little bit of downtime. Just to be able to center yourself and get yourself back into this moment is an important thing that you're able to do in a really, really good way. To literally change the state that your entire body is in just by controlling your breathing like that. The second thing we could do is what's called a centering statement. So this is where you have some sort of quick mantra or statement that you give yourself that brings you back to the present moment. So a really simple one is next play, right? If you find yourself caught up on a missed shot or a referee's call or a turnover or a mistake, or what your coach said, or your coach did, what your teammate said, what your teammate did. Being able to tell yourself, hey, next play, and just focusing on what you're doing right now, you just missed a shot, but hey, next play, I'm going to get a stop on defense right now and I'm going to get the ball back and then next time I'm open to shoot it again, right? Those are the important things to be able to say to yourself to, to get yourself back into that present moment. So next play is a great one. Being able to say like, you're good, I got this. Something simple like that whatever you want to say to yourself is going to take you from being, whether it's in that, that present or that, that that past moment or, or take yourself from being in that future moment that you're worried about. And bringing yourself back to the, the present is a really important thing to be able to do. And something that I think is the, the biggest difference between players who are great and players who, who, who maybe have the ability but don't perform consistently is the ability to just play and be in the present moment, right? We look at players who, and it's why you see, like in the NBA, for example, you have all these moments, like specifically in the playoffs where you play these seven game series and you'll have a team that will lose by, they'll get blown out in game one and the next thing you know, they go and win game two. And just because they're able to get past what just happened and be in the present moment and focus on giving their best effort. Now we're not worried about, oh man, we just lost by 30. Like, how are we going to beat these guys? This, like, no, we're just focused on giving my best effort in the current play that I'm in right there. And that allows a lot of, a lot of times a team that might lose by 30 early on, can go back and win a series, because that's the focus, that's the mindset, right? So if you want to be the best player possible, you have to focus on being in the present as much as you can right there. And having that centering breath in, that centering statement are great ways to do that. So just kind of a quick recap of what you need to do if you want to overcome missing shots, turning the ball over, making mistakes, being frustrated about things that are outside of your control. Number one is to never lose that belief in yourself. And what I really mean with that is that you can never lose the ability to keep showing up and to keep giving your best effort. You can't shy away from that just because of what your coach says or does or because of what's happened to you. Because all it takes is one performance. All it takes is one shot going in. All it takes is one good thing to happen for everything to change for you, right? But you just control showing up and giving your best. And that's the single most important thing for you to do and to remember. Number two is that you need to allow the law of averages to work for you. So the worst thing you can do when you, you make a mistake or you miss a couple shots or you turn the ball over is to stop doing that thing, right? Stop shooting or stop trying to be aggressive. Because then you don't allow the law of averages to work for you. If you're a good player, generally good things are going to happen to you. That doesn't mean that everything's going to be good. I mean, something's going to be really bad. But also to balance it out, some of these are going to be really great. And the only way that you can ruin that is by stopping. You have to keep going and keep attempting that thing so that the law of averages can work out for you. Okay? If you have made a shot in a game before, it means that you are not a zero percent shooter, meaning even if you struggle and you're missing every single shot, eventually you're going to make one because you've made a shot before. So you've proven you're not a zero percent shooter. I think that's an important thing to keep in mind. You're going to go back to your average. And if your average is above zero, it means that a make is coming for you at some point. Okay? Number three is that the players who struggle the most to be consistent and to show up and to play to their. To Their potential and to their best are the ones who allow things outside of their control to be their main focus. The referee, call or no call, whether the ball, whether the ball goes in, you always control that. Those things can't be what your focus is. Your focus has got to be on your effort. Your focus has got to be on you showing up and giving your best and staying in that present moment. Which takes us back to that last point, which is the best players are the ones who can spend the most amount of time, the highest percentage of time that they're on the court, the they spend in the present moment and not in the past or the future. And we can get ourselves back to that, to that, to the present moment by giving ourself that mantra and giving ourselves the just a centering breath in those moments where we feel like we're focused on a mistake or focused on some sort of fear of failure in the future. Okay, so all those things go into being a great player, right? Being a great player is so much more than just your ability to shoot or pass or dribble or how high you can jump or how strong you are or you know, how whatever the case may be. Players put in all this work in the off season on their skills and this and that and all that, but then they get to games and they allow these things to self sabotage them right there. So it's important that we keep these things in mind. Now if you want the other aspect of the, the mental part of the game, which is the iq, the understanding, I want you to check out my free basketball IQ masterclass down below. It's an hour long. We go through some of those important IQ points for you to understand. It's going to allow you to score more points, make more plays for your team and overall play with way more confidence, way more consistency on the court. Completely free, like I said. And we also actually dive into more stuff like this too. So one of the most important things that I ever put out, highly recommend you check that out. Completely free, top link down below. I appreciate you for watching. Talk soon. Peace.