How To Play Better in Basketball Games- How To Play Basketball Better

So I got a text from one of my players in our basketball training group a few days ago. Here's the situation that he's in. Basically, he plays really, really well in practice. He feels free and he plays to his potential. But when he gets into games, everything changes for him. He doesn't play as free anymore and he doesn't play anywhere close to his potential. And it's really, really frustrating for him. If you're watching this video, you've probably felt the same at some point in your life. Maybe you feel like this a lot. Maybe this is a big problem that you have in this video. I'm going to help you to fix this problem and I'm going to give you some things that you can do to finally play in games the way that you play in practice. Let's get into it. I've been exactly where you've been before. I'd go out into practice and play great and then the lights would turn on and it would be game time and I'd become almost invisible on the court. It was frustrating for me and and it was frustrating for my teammates and my coaches as well. There were times that I would even lose my starting spot because of how disappointing I play in games as compared to practices. So I understand the frustration. But through a lot of trial and error, I found a few keys to overcoming this problem and finally playing well in games. Here's your problem. Confidence. You're confident in practice, but you aren't confident in games. Here's why. Think about this. Imagine if I put a 10 foot long gymnastics balance beam on the ground and then I tell you that I'll give you $100 if you walk across the balance beam. Most of you guys are going to say yes. Why? Because the stakes are low. Even if you fall off the beam, you're on the ground. So nothing bad is going to happen to you. But what if I raised the beam 10ft in the air? Maybe some of you will still try it, depending on how confident you are in your ability to do it. But maybe some of you will decide not to. Now, what if I put that beam 10 stories in the air? I bet almost none of you would try it. But here's the thing. The actual task never changed. All you had to do is walk across a 10 foot beam when it was on the ground. I'm sure most of you would have been excited to get that easy $100. But once the stakes were raised and we went up higher, all you started to think about was what would happen if you Failed. This is the difference between practice and games. For most players in practice, there's no consequences for failure. There's no crowd, there's no clock, there's way less pressure. So it's easy for you and you just have fun and play. But as soon as we raise the stakes and it's game time, the crowd and the clock and the pressure gets to you and you tighten up, which is why you don't play as well. This is a vicious cycle because your brain gets nervous and puts your body into fight or flight mode, making you tighten up and not play as well. This makes you hate the pressure pack games even more, making you tighten up even more the next time. And it goes on and on and on. So how do we fix this? Number one, change your mindset. For a lot of players, this is a mindset problem. You're too worried about failing. And if you're worrying about not doing something, it's actually more likely that you're going to do that thing. If you're trying to teach someone how to swim, telling them to not drown is not going to help them. But telling them to kick their feet and use their arms effectively is going to be much more helpful. In the same way, your thoughts should never be anything like, don't miss this shot. Don't lose the ball. Don't mess up this play. Don't miss this layup. These are ineffective and are going to put your mind in a position to where you expect to fail. Instead of focusing on what you don't want, focus on what you do want. The best way to do this is by using affirmations. Affirmations are phrases you tell yourself that help program your mind to think a certain way. Any change that happens physically first happens mentally. So thinking the right thoughts are critical to fixing this problem. That's why you need to be using affirmations. I'm a great shooter and I love the pressure. It's a positive affirmation that you might use. At the end of this video, I'll give you guys a bunch of affirmations that you can use. But affirmations are more so something that we focus on before the game or at certain key moments during the game. What should you be thinking about during the game though? Here's the answer. Nothing. Your only focus during the game is the current moment, the play that you're in. Block out the fans, block out the noise, block out the importance of the game. This is just another couple hours on a basketball court for you. You've already done the work you've already been in the gym grinding. Now it's just time to go out and have fun. Because at the end of the day, you play basketball because it's fun. So don't let anything, especially your own mind, take away that fun from you. Here's the cue that you should use to keep yourself in the moment. Every time you find yourself wanting to focus on something negative or tighten up, think next play in basketball, whatever just happened is over. That layup you missed is over. You can't change that. But you know what you can do? You can turn around and sprint down the floor and block the guy who just rebounded. Your missed layup, that shot you missed is over. But you know what you can do? You can get back on defense and lock down your man and get the ball back and have another chance to score. Most coaches aren't that upset if you miss a good shot that they know you can make. They'll be mad, though, if your reaction to missing is to stand there and pout about it while the other team goes down and scores. When you're on the court, just play. Enjoy Every second you get to spend on the court, whether things are going great and you make every shot or things are going terrible and you miss every shot, play every single play like it's the last play you'll ever get. Because at some point in your life, that last play will actually happen and you need to leave it all out there. So there's the mental side. Let's talk a little bit about the physical side. Some days you're just going to be off. The shots just won't fall. Even the greatest players in the world have off nights. The first thing you need to understand is that the better you are, the more likely you are to play better and the less off days you're going to have. So every day you need to be outworking your opponents so that you don't have as many off shooting days during the season. You need to find time to get shots up and work on your other skills, whether that's before or after practice, or maybe before school in the morning or late at night. You need to consistently be perfecting your craft. Also, you need to try and be as prepared as you can for games. This this can be tough in middle school and high school because a lot of times you don't have that much time to get warmed up individually for games, especially if you're a varsity player. Getting your form shots in before games can be tough, but you need to find a way to get it done get your shot and your handles fill in right before the game starts. I'll give you guys a great warmth to do before games. Soon join our private training group to get it early. That's it guys. The mental side and the physical side, they go hand in hand and you can't have one without the other. If you want to play your best, ultimately what it comes down to is effort and playing relaxed. If you consistently do the right things, giving yourself positive affirmations, having a next play mindset, having a good pre game warm up, and working hard every single day, eventually the right things will start to happen to you. And like I said before, changing the way you think and the self talk you have is crucial to solving this problem. I wrote out a full list of positive affirmations for elite basketball players. I I put it in our Facebook group so all you have to do to get the list is click on the link in my description and join the group. It's 100% free and on top of that I'm giving you guys personal training and coaching, free workouts, and exclusive content that you won't get anywhere else. So go ahead and join and I'll explain to you how to use these affirmations effectively to completely change your mindset. If you guys enjoyed this video, leave a like and subscribe as well. Click that little black button for me to make it easy. I appreciate it guys. Drop a comment and let me know what you guys want to see next. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.