How To Stop Overthinking and Second-Guessing In Games (The 3 Step Process)

Overthinking and second guessing yourself in games will completely destroy all of your success on the court. But in this video, I'm going to give you the three steps you need to take in order to overcome this forever. So I just got this comment on one of my YouTube videos talking about this exact thing. He struggles with second guessing, with overthinking, especially when it comes to making a decision with the ball in your hand. So if you are somebody who relates to that, this video is going to change everything for you. The first thing you need to do is get super clear on who you are. There's a quote from Albert Einstein, and it says everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, then that fish is going to live its whole life believing that it's stupid. And as a basketball player, this is so important because it literally will shape everything that you do on the court. For example, maybe you're a player who is super strong and athletic and your best ability is driving to the basket and finishing around the rim. But you keep pulling defensive rebounds and trying to bring the ball up like a point guard trying to facilitate the offense, and you're struggling with that. Eventually you're going to lose confidence, and then with that, you're going to start to overthink things. You're going to second guess yourself. And that's because you're just like that fish is trying to climb a tree. Well, you have to understand is that there's never been another player who's played the game of basketball that's like you. You're one of one. There are great players out there who have all these different skills, but the exact combination that makes you you is unlike anybody else. So the greatest gift that you can give to the game and give to yourself is to accept who you are as a player and to not try and be somebody else or be somebody that you're not. When you can accept that, when you know who you are, when you're honest about that, and then you stick to doing those things, you make those your priority. That's when the game flows to you. Because right now, chances are you, you're scratching and clawing for every point that you get. Every ounce of success you find on the court is hard. It's difficult. But when you really know who you are and you accept that and you play to those strengths, things just happen. You start to score points more easily, you start to be more confident. Things become easy for you. When you can accept that. But that's step number One is getting very clear on what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are, and where you need to make sure that you put yourself in order to give yourself the best chance of being successful. Step two is understanding the decision making checklist. This can be super simple. Like the player said in the comment that was left, he was struggling, understanding when to shoot, when to pass, all those things. The actual process for making that decision is so simple. And I'm going to tell you exactly how you can do it so that you avoid overthinking or second guessing ever first. Like I said, this is going to sound super simple. Let me break it down for you. The three options you have, you can shoot, you can drive, or you can pass. And the order that we want to check those off is in that same order. So the first option is shoot. So are you open? And if you are open, shoot it. Now, there's a couple of caveats to that. Number one, are you capable of making that shot? If you can't make threes, then don't take the three. Second thing is, are you confident in taking that shot? If you don't feel like you're going to make the shot? If you feel unconfident taking it, there's no point in taking that either. You want to take shots that you don't feel good about. And then the other piece of that is, do you have a teammate who is more open than you or who has a layup opportunity? If that's the case, you pass them the ball. So step one of this, when it comes to deciding whether or not you should shoot, is are you open and is it a shot that you're capable of making and confident. Confident taking. And do you have any teammates who are more open than you or have an opportunity for a layup? When you go through those things, that will give you the decision on shooting. Now, let's say you don't have the shot. That's when we get to drive. That's step two. Now the question becomes, do you have a close up coming at you? Is your defender off balance? Is there momentum to attack? If so, drive. Or do you have a size advantage or an athleticism advantage on the player who's defending you? In that case, also, we want to drive. And then the third step to that is pass. This is the simplest one of all. If you don't have a shot and you don't have a drive, pass the ball immediately. And when you make that pass, you can do anything but stand still. The only wrong decision you can make is pass it. And stand and watch you make that pass, you cut or you screen away. So now that we understand the checklist, how do we make sure that we avoid the overthinking, the second guessing that a lot of times comes along with making decisions? There's really two things you need to understand about this, and it's going to give you a ton of clarity. When it comes to making that decision of shoot, driver, pass, you need to make that decision within half a second of catching the ball. We call that playing in 0.5 decisions. And the reason for that is because your best opportunity to do anything is going to be the second that you catch. The basketball defense is rotating. That's when you're going to be the most open or the most able to attack, or it's going to be the best to make that pass to one of your teammates. So when you hear that, maybe your first thought is, well, if I make that decision within half a second, then I'm going to overthink it more, because how am I going to be able to go through that checklist so quick? What if I make the wrong decision? First thing is, you have to reframe how you're thinking about this. In reality, making a quick decision is.