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Here is a list of basketball movies that can be watched on YouTube for free.
Check out my two infographics I created about stress and basketball. It demonstrates the Inverted U relationship about using the pressure you put on yourself wisely. Optimal performance happens for players when pressure is not too high or too low. You will also see the attentional control theory and the tension between scanning the environment for threat and safety, and how you are more likely distracted when scanning for threats. My second infographic demonstrates promoting body image in youth sports and to how to build self-esteem.
Fear of Failure
As young basketball players continue to strive for improvement and set goals for themselves during their careers, there will always be moments of uncertainty and fear of failing. “What if I don’t make the team.” “What if I’m not as good at basketball as I thought.” What if my opponent plays better than me.” It can be scary to have dreams and goals and even scarier to have to chase those goals. As a basketball player, it can be scary because if you put all your effort into the sport of basketball and you fail, then you won’t know how you will feel about yourself. That’s why the greatest fear we face is ourselves. When you hear the term “fearless” it means chasing your goals no matter what and doing it not for anyone else, but yourself. Don’t be afraid to fail. So many times, we are taught that fear is a bad thing and that we shouldn’t feel nervous or scared. Having emotions or being scared is a good thing. It’s important to understand that we all have fears, and when you can accept those feelings and understand why you feel a certain way and where the feeling of fear is coming from, you realize that your fears are mainly just your imagination, and those fears aren’t as big as we make them to be. To become a better basketball player, it's important to seek knowledge from any resources available to you. It's always beneficial to learn from your peers, the pros, and people that have a lot of experience and wisdom about the game of basketball. If you are looking for a deep dive into basketball discussion, training, and breakdown these are the best basketball channels to subscribe to on YouTube.
The impact of visualization for a basketball player can be an extremely powerful tool for better performance. Visualization is a mental representation of what you want to have happen on the court. It’s similar to daydreaming but in a much more structured and focused way. The idea is that practicing in your mind your best performance will help you in real situations on the court. Visualization involves recreating personal highlights that you remember about yourself performing well in past situations and succeeding. In order for imagery to be effective it must be vivid. Evoking a strong image for basketball players requires tapping into your senses to make the visualization as real as possible. Players can recreate moments with awareness of sights, sounds, and feelings. Creating a strong image involves tapping into as many senses as possible. In a way, it's similar to tricking your brain into mental manipulation by seeing what you want to have happen on the court. It can be recreating a successful experience or recreating to learn and correct mistakes. To give an example on how to practice visualization, start by focusing on as many visual cues as possible. Imagine a scenario where you were fouled, and you are going to the free throw line:
Visualization is just like a jump shot, you need to practice it over and over again in order for it be a strength you can rely on. Use imagery to your advantage. (Tip: Remember to visualize yourself always having fun.) Check out this video below on the benefits of visualization for athletes. As a former basketball player, coach, and even referee, I have seen the different behaviors in which parents approach their children's basketball games and their reactions to how their child performs. I’ve seen the screaming mom or dad during the game, the quiet parent who probably yells in the car ride home, the parent who blames everyone except their kid, and every kind of parent behavior in between. Understandably so, all parents want what’s best for their kids. They all want to see their child play in every tournament and be the star of the team, but that’s not always the reality. The development and understanding of basketball is different for everyone and will happen at different times. It can be hard for a parent in the heat of competition to keep their composure. But as parents, it’s your job to be supportive no matter the outcome, and always keep the bigger picture in mind. Remember your actions represent your family and your child. When parents start screaming at refs, coaches, or other parents they embarrass themselves and their child.
In my observations of parents, I would say the biggest piece of advice would be to take a step back and let your child figure out and experience the emotions and ebbs and flows of basketball on their own. When you constantly need to come to your child’s rescue when things don’t go their way, your child will never be able to learn to handle those difficult times and emotions by themselves. It can be hard for a parent to refrain and watch their child be upset or struggle, it’s the protective nature of parents. They are just wired that way, I get it. A parent needs to realize there is a lesson for their child in everything they do on the court. There will be a time when your child gets benched because they weren’t playing well, and someone was playing better than them. So many times, I’ve seen parents yell at the coach, or by the next game they are already signing their kid up to play on a new team because the other team’s coach wouldn’t treat their kid that way. Let your child figure it out and have the game of basketball provide those life lessons to them on their own. Let your child feel the emotions of embarrassment and frustration, if your kid loves the game, they’ll feel that anger and use it as fuel to build that competitive drive on their own and use it to practice and become better players. Check out this tweet from a former professional basketball player Jamal Crawford and his opinion on parents in basketball. As basketball players continue to progress their skills, and eventually play better competition, the pressures that come with performing can sometimes be overwhelming. As a player, there can be a lot of stressful scenarios to deal with, such as the stresses of making the team, competing against your teammates for playing time or being pushed to the limit by your parents and coaches, which can all result in more of a mental drain than a physical one. It becomes common for basketball players to have moments where they create negative commentary towards themselves and don’t even realize they are sabotaging their potential.
The self-belief in your abilities as a basketball player is just as important as the physical skills you possess. Being able to connect and have awareness of your thoughts can be used as a tool to build confidence, develop positive mental habits, and improve performance on the court. Self-efficacy is important when dealing with a challenge or setback because it’s about the individual player's belief in his or herself to act on behaviors necessary to produce good performance when playing. When you understand the power of your mind you begin to realize how impactful your thoughts are towards your behavior. For example, a player might say “I am bad at basketball” (thought), they feel disappointed or angry (feelings) “I stopped practicing and quit basketball because I’m not as good as I thought.” (behavior) Part of self-talk is having honest self-awareness in order to take corrective action on your skills. If you didn’t have a good game or missed a lot of shots, you should make it a routine to ask yourself the question “why?” Curiosity is one of the best traits to have as a basketball player because when you're curious about why things went right or wrong, it can constantly help you process your thoughts and improve your game. When you are curious and reassure yourself through self-talk you build confidence and play much better as a player. For example, “I didn’t make my free throws, I can fix that by having good balance and bending my knees more before I shoot.” As a basketball player, it's the ability to change the vocabulary in your own head from saying things like "I can't to I can." When you have the belief in yourself and can manage your self- doubt it becomes a routine to think that way, when you think a certain way long enough a routine becomes a habit, and habits are what builds permanent changes for a stronger mental approach that can help you in mentally challenging times on the court. Check out the graphic below on how to better control self-talk. The 3 Life Lessons Basketball Taught Me
1. Hard Work and Patience As the saying goes, “You get out of it what you put into it” and that’s true in basketball and life. There are tons of books and articles that talk about "practice makes perfect" and all the cliches that we’ve heard before, but there will always be a truth to that. I think the separator for people is the commitment to consistently working hard. It’s the player who stays alone after practice to shoot an extra one hundred shots every day, the person in their company who is the first one in the office five days a week, or the student who comes into school early every morning to get extra math lessons to improve his test scores. When you put the extra work in the results will eventually speak for themselves and that goes for everything you do in life. Life and basketball can also be cruel and unfair at times, but we have to be accepting and patient. A player might have trained all summer for the season only to end up getting injured in the first game. The same can be said in life when you don’t land the job, the date, or the grade you worked extremely hard for. Basketball taught me that we all inevitably fail, and that requires a lot of patience and hard work every single day to get the results we want, even if those results aren't always guaranteed. 2.Letting it Go Another life lesson basketball has taught me is to have a short-term memory. Let me explain, regardless of making a good or bad play, winning, or losing the game, the best thing to do is forget it happened and move on. As a player, you might have a game where you’re the hero and score twenty points including the game-winning shot, then the following game you’re missing all the shots and have a turnover that loses your team the game. Either way, you have to learn to let it go and move forward. The mindset of a basketball player should always be about the next play or the next game because you don’t want to live in the moment (good or bad) for too long. I’ve learned the same concept should be applied in life too. You will have a bad Monday where everything is going wrong and you feel like you’ll never recover, but then you realize it was just one Monday. The next Monday might be an amazing day that you never want to end. That cycle happens in all of our lives, so I’ve learned that it’s important to not get too high or too low and not get caught up on the results on the court or in life too much. 3.Everyone Plays a Part I have learned that you need teammates in basketball and life to succeed. The greatest players and the most successful people in this world have always given credit to the teammates or people who have helped them along the way because nobody can accomplish things all by themselves. In basketball, I have tried to bring the best out of my teammates. Sometimes teammates aren’t as skilled or developed but they may do something particularly great like rebounding well or playing great defense which can still contribute to helping our team win. I’ve always thought it was important to make a teammate or a person feel valued towards accomplishing a team goal whether that was winning a basketball game or doing a group project in school. When everybody feels like they play a part it creates better team success.
2.Remember your Job: As a basketball official, it’s important to remember you are not a player or a fan. It sounds silly and obvious to write such a thing, but basketball is an emotional game, and when emotions and feelings get involved for an official it becomes easy to forget your job. It’s inevitable as a referee that players, coaches, and fans will get upset and criticize you for calls you make against their team. Referees are humans with emotions too and it can be hard for an official to not get upset when getting yelled at which a lot of times can result in the referee having favoritism towards the “nicer” team or player. In those moments when your emotions are being tested you have to put your feelings aside and always stay objective. An official should try their best to display professionalism at all times. (Tip to remember: Refereeing can be a thankless job sometimes.) 3. Be Approachable: It can be as equally important to have good communication skills and be a “people person” as it is to blow the whistle as a referee. In my experience, coaches and players always appreciate a ref that is approachable. Before the game even starts you should build a dialogue by introducing yourself by name and shaking the coach's and player's hands. It’s a great way to remind them you are human too because a lot of times the only dialogue between an official and a coach will be arguments. When you get to have coaches and players know you on a personal level first that helps prevent some of the hostility and tension when they disagree with you. 4.Mistakes are part of the job: Nobody is perfect and the same goes for officials. Remember to not take yourself too seriously because no matter how much experience as a ref you may have, there will always be times when you get a call wrong. The best thing to say sometimes is “My fault that was a bad call” or “I missed that play”, instead of always trying to seem right or be a “know it all”. That honest approach can be a great stress diffuser and almost any coach I’ve encountered has respected me from that. 5 Player Safety: As an official, you want to keep in mind the importance of players’ safety. It’s your job to protect the players by having the confidence to call fouls when you see them and not tolerate unsportsmanlike conduct. A lot of times as a ref we get caught ball-watching but typically it’s the player furthest from the ball on the court that might throw an elbow or stick out a foot to trip another player because that player thinks nobody is watching. When you keep players' safety as a top priority you prevent players from getting too physical and it allows you to keep a game under control. To hear more from a professional referee and what coaches' expectations of refs are check out this video below: |
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