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Playing at the Top of Your Game


Do you think too much at the free throw line? Do you worry about missing shots or making mistakes? Sue Bird, a 4-yr veteran guard for the Seattle Storm of the WNBA says: “I like pressure. I thrive on it.”

Being an athlete requires you to not only deal with pressure, but thrive under the stress of competition.

The great players, NBA and WNBA All-Star caliber players have conditioned themselves to playing under pressure. In fact, they often play their best when the game is on the line.

How do they do it?

There's no secret formula, but there are some very definite ways to help you conquer your feelings of stress and play your best when you need to.

Here are some tricks that college and profession athletes use:

- Be confident and believe in yourself
- Eliminate negative thoughts and fear of failure from your mind before and during games
- Visualize yourself performing well, and being cool under pressure
- Practice and prepare thoroughly so you're ready and able to play well when it counts
- Play in the moment - always concentrate on what is happening now, not what you might have done wrong on the last play

Often, players psych themselves out of the game. Don't let that happen to you. Practice and prepare yourself to perform at your best, be confident, concentrate on the moment, and eliminate negative thoughts.

Do these things and you'll be way ahead of the competition, and well on your way to playing at your best.

Just being a good athlete doesn't mean you'll be a good basketball player. I've played with (and coached) lots of players who have amazing physical ability, but they can't play the game.

On the other hand, most good basketball players are good athletes.

That's not to say they are necessarily the strongest players on their teams, or the quickest, or can jump the highest.

Good players the basketball skill-set necessary to play the game well (court sense, court vision, decision-making skills, shooting ability, etc.), along with the physical skills to get the job done (they can run and jump well, have good balance and timing, etc.).

Basketball is a game of movement and action, so it makes sense that players who can move and execute well because of their physical skills will likely do better than those who can't, or are less able in these areas.

Basketball-Specific Training

Training specifically for basketball (and the moves that a player makes in a game) is very important. Every sport has its unique patterns and moves, and basketball is no different.

One of the things I stress to my private coaching clients is that power and quickness are essential traits for good basketball players. There is lots of running in basketball (up and down the court), but the action takes place with explosive jumps, quick turns and pivots, and power moves to the basket.

So how do you train for this? I recommend traditional strength training of course. But I also recommend what many consider a "new breed" of training focused around flexibility and core strength.

In the coming weeks, I'll provide lots of training material on this web page. Some of the items we'll cover will be:

- Core training
- Traditional strength training
- Flexibility training
- Explosive jump training
- Quickness and agility training

We'll address basketball-specific training with a variety of equipment, some of which will include:

- Traditional weight training equipment
- Training with an exercise ball and weighted exercise balls
- Trainig with the BOSU balance trainer
- Training with an agility ladder

This is all cutting-edge training information, much of which is used by professional athletes in all the major sports and leagues (NBA, WNBA, NFL, Major League Baseball, and Olympic athletes).

Check back soon for more great articles...