Basketball Tip

Why brain beats brawn on the basketball court

Why is it an older, supposedly washed up veteran team can beat an energetic, crazy-athletic team of rookies? Teams with ultimate focus tend to beat teams with limited focus nearly every time, regardless of the athletic talent.  At a certain talent level, the mind becomes the most important part of victory.  That’s why veteran teams tend to beat less experienced teams at a very high rate.  Focus is the crucial essence that makes teams victorious. Focus involves following the direction of other more-focused players and coaches until you have an understanding of how to establish and maintain your own focus even under great intensity.  After you can maintain your own focus, you work to become a leader at helping the team stay focused through mutual hard work, discipline, and communication.  Focus your heart, mind, body, and  spirit toward doing what it takes to secure victory.  Then help focus the heart, mind, body, and spirit of the team so that you sustain focus from the beginning of the game to the final second.

Seven Ways to Become Stronger Mentally

1. Focus on what you can do well and do it.  If you are a scorer, score.  If you are an assist king, dish dimes.  If you are a defender, lock it down.  If you hustle, go all out.  If you rebound like a wrecking ball, go haul in every board. Fix your mind on these tasks.

2. To increase your ability to gather greater focus, improve your skills so that you are an all-around player, capable of great focus on offense, defense, hustle, rebounding, passing, and shooting.

3. Find the calm in the storm.  Use your focus to let you perform at the highest level in the most chaotic or intense game situations, by staying calm internally while your body completes tasks of great intensity.

4. Cause greater chaos for your opponent in order to shift them off their focus.  Don’t let them do what they like to do best.  Cause them to do things unfamiliar to them in all aspects of the game.

5. Cause greater calmness for your team in order to increase team focus.  Unite your team in a common bond of doing what the team does best.  Cause your team to do things that are successful, confident, and in your team’s wheel house.

6. Encourage.  All teams thrive on encouragement and eventually wilt under degradation.  Communicate.  Point out your teammates’ strengths.  Get excited.

7. Be strong with the ball, strong at executing plays, and strong at doing what you are capable of.  Avoid doing things that have little chance of success in the chaos of the game.  Don’t let your defender or the opponent take you or your team off your mark.  Establish your team chemistry in the middle of the game’s intensity.

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