What Should You Be Thinking About While Playing? (Podcast 74)

Foreign welcome to the Vision of Vessel Training Podcast. Appreciate you guys, Apple Podcasts or Spotify, Pandora, Google Podcast, Sound Club or wherever you may be listening from. Shout out to you guys. And of course everybody who is watching right now on YouTube, drop a like subscribe if you're new new podcast coming every single week. If you're on YouTube right now, drop a comment below as well. Let me know what you think. Let me know if this episode helps you at all or if you have any other topics you want me to cover. You have any questions you want me to cover, make sure you drop that down in the description below as well. And if you're an Apple podcast, do me a favor and scroll down to the bottom of the page and leave a review for me. Let me know what you think about the show. And today we'll hop into the episode. This is a question that I've gotten a lot recently, actually, and so I figured I'd talk about it, give you guys some real concrete steps to take with this. I think that this is a really, really important topic to understand and something that I definitely struggle with for sure. And I see it now all the time with, with players that I coach, players that I train. And obviously it's a question I've gotten from you guys very recently, so I figured it'd be important. And that's just simply, you know, the question might be like, hey, what should I be thinking about while I'm playing? Or what do I do if I'm overthinking when I'm playing? Or where should my mind be? What should my focus be on while I'm playing? Essentially something along, along those lines, right? And so this is really going to apply to you if you either a struggle with overthinking, right? So you get into a game, you start thinking about, oh, should I be doing this or doing that? Or is this the right play to make? Or is that the right play to make? Or oh, if I do that, what, mess that up? Or should I Basically just not being able to actually play and put yourself in the moment and instead spending so much time and energy just worried about, like, either what you should be doing, what you shouldn't be doing, how to not mess something up that tends to be a big one, but essentially just not allowing yourself to actually, like, have fun and just play and almost holding yourself back because you're thinking about things too much. So that this, this will certainly apply to you if you're in that category, but also if you're in the category of somebody who maybe when you make a mistake or something goes wrong, you really almost take yourself out of the game mentally, right? You almost check yourself out, and it's hard for you to be able to come back and kind of recollect yourself and calm yourself after you've messed something up. Maybe that forces you to play timid after you've made a mistake or after you mess something up. Or, you know, maybe it just. Maybe it sends you along the line of, like, not being able to, like, calm yourself down. You're just, like, angry, and you can't really focus and be effective for your team. So this is also going to apply to you in those situations. So if you fall somewhere in there, I also think it's going to be really, really valuable for you guys as team teammates, being able to help your teammates if you see them in these situations right here, being able to kind of give them some advice. And that goes to just being a great teammate, make your teammates better. So I think that this can be super valuable for you, regardless of whether or not you struggle with it, because I'm sure that you have a teammate or a friend or somebody who's going to struggle with something like this, and the more that you know about it, the better that it is. So really, both of those situations, that overthinking or you, you know, not being able to calm yourself after making a mistake or something goes wrong, really, that comes from just your focus being in the wrong place. And there can be more that goes into that for sure, right? There can be more underlying factors that go into those, being your responses to things. But for now, we'll keep it simple and we'll talk about it in the context of the past and the future, right? Typically, if your focus is on overthinking, if that's where your struggle's at with overthinking, typically your focus is on the future, right? It's on. Okay, what am I going to do when I get the ball? What am I going to do when my defender or my. The guy on guard against the ball, what should I do? My teammate gets the ball right here. Okay, what am I going to do if coach calls this play? What am I going to do if coach calls that play? Okay, you're thinking about what's going to happen, right? Oh, if I get the ball in the wing, what am I going to do? Oh, if I get the ball in the wing, am I supposed to pass there? Should I pass there? Should I pass there? Should I shoot it? Should I drive? Typically, you're just Thinking about what is going to happen in the future. And so that's one end of the spectrum. The other end of the spectrum is thinking about the past. You're focused being on the past. And that's typically what happens to players who struggle a lot with not being able to get past, making mistakes, Whether that makes them timid or makes them angry and makes them maybe out of control and not able to maybe think rationally or really mentally be there after those things happen, typically it's because they're so focused on what just happened that they can't get themselves past that. Okay? So the solution to both of these problems is changing your focus from either being on the past or on the future, changing that to being in the present. Okay? That's where it's got to be. So if you're on one end of the spectrum, you have to find a way to get yourself back to focusing on just the present. And all that that means is just your focus needs to be on what is happening right now. And in this exact moment, what's happening. That's where your focus has to be, right? The present moment is all that there is. Okay? And it's kind of a weird concept to think about, but when really, like, the only thing that you can be sure exists is right now, right? You don't know what's gonna happen in five seconds, right? As I'm recording this, the world might end in three seconds, right? Okay. It didn't. But point being, it could have, right? I don't know that. I don't have any sort of. I can't see the future. I don't know what's gonna happen in the future. So me focusing on that really is not the best use of my mental energy. And I can't. By sitting there and thinking about the future, that's not going to actually be what can affect the future. What can affect the future is what I do in the present moment right now. Okay? And then the past, right? You have absolutely no control over that either. Right? You actually have less control over the past than you do over the future, because the past, it's what happened, right? When you think about it, if you get upset because you know you made a mistake, maybe you made a mistake 30 seconds ago, you're still upset over it. When you honestly, like, take a step back and you look at that, being concerned with that mistake you made 30 seconds ago is. It's. It's basically in the same vein as you being upset about a mistake you made 30 days ago, right? Because you have zero control over either, right? But you're allowing a mistake that you just made to impact you in the present, and the present being the only thing that you can control. If you allow a. A past mistake to affect you right now, then it's going to continue to. To hold you back and hold you down, right? If you missed a shot five minutes ago and you're still upset or you're in a game still, think about it. Oh, man, I can't believe I missed that shot. And you're still like, you know, you go over, your coach calls timeout. You're just. The whole entire time, you listen to a single thing that your coach says in the huddle, you're just worried about missing that shot or those couple shots that you took. That's literally the same thing as if you went to the huddle and you were thinking about a shot that you missed five years ago, right? Both of those matter the same exact amount right now. They both don't matter. The only thing that matters is what you do in the current moment. Right now, those things have happened already. But you being focused on something that happened five minutes ago, literally, it's probably honestly worse than that. Focus on what happened five years ago, because typically that, you know, you're not worried about what happened five years ago, but you are worried about what just happened, right? So there's a little bit of a disconnect right there in terms of you being worried about what just happened has absolutely no impact on the present moment unless you allow it to. And if you allow it to, it typically is going to be a negative thing, and it's almost like a cycle, right? And. And you see it so much, right? And I'm sure you guys, whether you struggle with this or you're a teammate or somebody that, you know, struggles with this, right? A couple things go wrong. They miss a few shots, and all of a sudden they just start to play horrible, right? They. They can't get themselves out of that, right? If they. They might have days where they make a bunch of shots and they're great, and then they'll have days where they'll miss two, three shots, and they'll start talking negative to themselves. They start getting really, really upset, and they'll either just, like, get so angry that they can't, like, they have to check out mentally, or they'll start to get timid and they won't want to shoot anymore and they'll have a horrible game, right? And that's what happens when your focus is on the past is Bad things tend to happen anytime things go wrong. And basketball is a game of if you're playing against other good players, things are going to go wrong for you no matter who you are, right? No matter who you are, you're going to miss shots, you're going to have bad games, you're going to turn the ball over, you're going to make mistakes. But if you can't handle that, you can't get past it, then you're constantly going to be at the whim of your circumstance. So if things are good, it's great, but if things are bad, it's going to be horrible for you. You do not want to be in that situation. You want to be very, very even keel. Never too high, never too low. And, and so all that you control is the way that you respond to those mistakes. And likewise, talking about, you know, the worrying about the future, right? Instead of worrying about what could happen, what could happen next position, what could happen in, you know, the next quarter, what could happen the next game, right? Instead of worrying about that, you just need to focus on what you control right now, which is the present moment. And ultimately going back to the initial question, which is, what should I be thinking about during game? You shouldn't be thinking about anything really, right? You should just be in the present, just allow yourself to play. And if you've put the work in and you've prepared yourself, the only thing you really have to do is just get out of your own way, right? Because, you know, you're, you're, you've put in the work, right? And physically, you know, the muscle memory is there, you've done it, right? You've, you've, you know, you have those subconscious abilities to make those decisions, to make the right play, make the right decisions and make those reads and games because you've worked on it, right? So now the only thing you have to do is just get out of your own way and don't let overthinking or worrying about what already happened prevent you from being at your best, right? And that's what I mean by being in the present, okay? And that's ultimately what the zone is, being so much in the present that you're just playing, right? That's what being in the zone is. You don't have any space to worry about what could happen, what just happened. You're just playing, you're just in the moment. That's what being in the zone is. So we talk about being in the zone or being in the present. If you struggle with that what are some ways for you to be able to do that, right? To get to a point where you're just playing, you're not thinking about anything, you're not trying to be anything. You're just being. You're just playing. And you have to understand that you only control two things. The basketball court, okay? No matter how good you become, you do not control whether or not the ball goes in because you. You might shoot the ball, and maybe you're playing on a court where the ceiling is a little bit low and hits the ceiling, it might have been a perfect shot that was going to be a swish, but because the ceiling was a little bit low in that gym, you're playing, and maybe it hit the ceiling and it didn't go in, right? So that there's an example of you. You don't control whether or not the ball goes in, okay? You might shoot the ball perfectly, and then, you know, Giannis comes out of nowhere and swats the ball out of bounds. You might. You did everything in your power to make that shot, and somebody else altered it, right? That. That happens. Okay, Obviously, extreme example, but I'm giving you that example as well. You might shoot the ball, and it might be. It might feel perfect, right? It might have been a great shot, a great decision. You're wide open shot that you've made a million times that everybody knows that you can make, and you shoot. It feels great, and it rims in and out. Like, you don't control whether or not the ball goes in. You might make a great pass to your teammate and then they blow a layup, right? So you don't control whether or not you got that assist because your teammate ultimately has to make that play. And. And sometimes they don't, right? Sometimes, you know, you. You might be on defense and you might be playing somebody really, really well, and you get a finger on the ball and they shoot it, it still goes in. You don't control them putting the ball in the basket, right? Those are things you don't control in the basketball court. The only things you control are your effort and your attitude. So how hard you play, the energy that you play with, and ultimately the. The approach, whether you decide to be positive or be negative, those are the only things you control on the basketball court. So when you catch yourself starting to overthink things or starting to, you know, getting. Getting really caught up in what just happened, you missed a couple shots, you turn the ball over, whatever you just got scored on, you change your focus over to giving your best effort Right. This next possession, you're just focused on playing as hard as you can on defense, right? There's a. There's a great way for you. And this is not only because you control your effort, right? You control that, but also it allows you to get into just playing. You're just focused on being the best you can be in that moment when you focus on giving your best effort, having the most energy that you can, and that naturally kind of gets you back to being in the present, okay? So that's one thing that you can do when you find yourself struggling, when you find yourself overthinking or worrying about what just happened. Getting frustrated with what just happened is change your focus from that to, I'm going to give my best effort right now in this possession, right? I'm going to get my best effort, my best energy right now. And that's going to tend to bring you back into the present moment. And then another great thing that you can do is just take a few seconds to focus on your breathing, right? And focusing on your breathing is another great way to get yourself back to the present. This kind of goes along with meditation, which I've had a few. You guys asked me about talking about that in the podcast as well, which I definitely will at some point, talk a little bit more in depth about meditation. But one of one thing that I really would recommend, and this can be, even if you don't struggle with this sort of stuff, I think it's good to just do this on occasion, regardless, is the 7 to 8 breath. So all of that means that you're going to inhale for seven seconds, right? Through your nose, you're going to inhale for seven seconds, and then you're going to hold that breath for two seconds, and then you're going to exhale through your mouth for eight seconds, okay? And maybe you do that, you know, two or three times, right? And you're just going to feel your, your. Your state shift, right? You're going to go from being super, like, amped up to nice and relaxed, okay? And that's where you want to be. You want to be in a relaxed, calm state so that you can really be in the present, right? And when you're just focused on that breath going in, that breath, you know, being held in your chest for a couple seconds and your breath going back out, that's you really focusing on just the present, right? Something super simple, just like breathing, right? Getting yourself in tune with just your body with. In tune with yourself, right there. That's another great way that you'll, you're able to get yourself focused back on just being, right? Just existing, just being in the present moment is focusing on your breath right there. And you know, again, that actually will help you physically relax too. Like if you, if you just try that right now or you pause the video right now and you try that, inhaling for seven seconds, holding for two, exhaling for eight seconds, you're just going to feel more calm, right? You're going to feel a little bit more relaxed. And there is a physiological effect on you when you really take those deep breaths and allow yourself to soak up all that oxygen, right? It's a very, very good thing for you. But again, those two things, focusing on the controllable, so focusing on giving your best effort and taking those, those opportunities to deep breathe, right? And this can be, you know, I would recommend that honestly, like before a game, right, Especially if you feel a little bit nervous, right, Taking those, those, those breaths, that breath sequence, maybe three or four times in a row, you do that. Maybe that's before the game starts. Maybe it's on the bench before you're about to check into the game. You do that a couple times. If it's maybe during a dead ball, maybe somebody's at the free throw line and you just take that time. So you know, while your teammates shooting their team shooting free throws is take that breath, right? Looking for moments to be able to just get back to your breathing, right? Especially in the context of stressful situations. So you're at a tryout, you're at a showcase, you're at a whatever. Like you're in a situation where you kind of feel a little bit stressed out. A great way to get back to just being, to just exist and just playing, to being in that peak state, to getting yourself in the zone is taking that opportunity to breathe and focus on your breathing. And again, you can do that in like 15 inch seconds right there. So something that I'd highly recommend is that you guys do that when you shift your focus to the present. That's when good things happen, right? When you're, when you're not thinking about things, you're just focused on now, focused on being the best you can be right now. That's where you actually are able to maximize the work you put in. Again, typically it's not about like thinking about something that's going to make you better in a game you've already put the work in. At this point when you get to the game, like there is no, like there's no thought that you can think is going to make you better, right? You. You are what you are at that point, right? You've either put the work in or you haven't. To that point, if you have, all that you need to do is just get out of your own way, is just let your subconscious, let your body just take over and do what it's worked on, right? And you can't let your conscious thoughts derail your body from being able to be in its peak state, right? So it's all about getting yourself back to the zone. You do that by focusing on the present through those two methods that we talked about. So again, if you struggle with that, try these things, Try shifting your focus to these things. Um, especially if that's something that, you know, I think it's important to build the habit of, right? When you're in a game and you start to catch yourself overthinking things is. Okay, hold up. I'm just gonna focus on giving my best effort right now, right? Maybe you take a deep breath and you just focus on giving your best effort on this play. Getting yourself back into the present moment, right? It's a habit you're gonna start to, to build, right? So you're, you're, you're slowly going to get more comfortable with, with being in the present to. And it will get.