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“The best players in the world are totally focused on the present moment – because that is all they can control…Great players don’t worry about a missed shot or a bad call.  They don’t get distracted by trying to think about winning and losing.  They focus on the here and now.  They ‘Play Present.’”

This concept from Alan Stein and Graham Betchardt can be simplified as focusing on one task at a time throughout the game.

Below are a few phrases we use that in basketball (and life) that are situation specific to help us and our players “Play Present”.

“One for One”

It’s amazing how difficult it is to stay focused throughout a workout – great players have developed ability to do this. We use this phrase ‘One for One’ in every shooting drill that we do.  It helps players focus on shooting one shot at a time, not thinking about the last shot they missed or the one 30 seconds in the future that they are trying to make.  Focus on your feet and your follow through, one shot at a time – every time.  We want to shoot 1 shot 500 times, not 500 shots.

“Next Play”

This concept is from Duke Basketball and Coach K.  I think this phrase is appropriate for after a mistake is made.  Mistakes are part of the game and life – expect them, accept them and move on.  So many times 1 mistake leads another mistake or a lack of focus on the next possession.  By using the phrase “Next Play” we are turning our attention and focus immediately to the next thing in our control.

1-0

Preparing for a game the only thing we want players to focus on is the one ahead of us. Every game is a big game and needs to be treated that way.  Specifically here we want to focus on the process of going “1-0” – things we can control like rebounding, spacing the floor, closing out and communicating.

1 Stop

Defensively if you can focus on getting one stop at a time throughout a game you are going to be successful.  It’s extremely difficult to focus all your effort on 1 single defensive possession at a time and the teams that do reap the benefits.  Closeout, contain and contest.  Rebound – it’s not a stop until you do. To challenge your team see how many stops you can get in a row.  Keep adding them up. Set records and beat records.

If you can discipline yourself to be present – yes it’s a choice – with your feet on every shot, making each dribble move quicker and maximum effort on every possession you’ll have more enjoyment from the game, and make quicker improvements.  We need deep, deliberate practice to improve and “Playing Present” is how you get there.

If you have any other phrases that you use to teach players to “Play Present” I’d love to hear them.

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Mike Lee Basketball Services trains thousands of middle school through NBA players each year in their skill development training, camps and coaches clinics.  The owner, Mike Lee, is also a Nike Girls Skills Academy instructor and the assistant director for the Stephen Curry Skills Academy. Recently the company has authored 7 skill development DVDs and created miSkillz Online Basketball training. To host an event in your city or learn more please visit www.mikeleebasketball.com.

Follow us on Twitter @mikeleehoops

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This article was inspired by Jay Bilas’s book, Toughness.  I highly recommend it.

People often say that only the individual truly determines belief in themselves.  Ultimately this is the truth —  in the end, when the game is on the line you must have an unwavering confidence to make the right play.  However, I’ve come to realize there is a debate on whether or not this self belief and sense of confidence comes directly from inside the mind of the person.

Do you have to believe in yourself first or does someone need to show it to you before you will actually start to internalize what you could become? Until you actually trust your skills, you will never make it. I truly believe many times others can see the greatness in someone else. They can see past the mistakes, through their flaws and can see their potential.

While the “final say” has to do with you, I think it is 99% of the time ignited by someone or something else. Either visualizing someone else be successful from the same situation you came from — maybe your neighborhood or your high school basketball program — or saying the right words at the right time.

Ignition

In Daniel Coyle’s excellent book, The Talent Code, he calls this Ignition.  If you are in 7th grade and see a player from your high school team go on to play college basketball, you might start to think “If he can do it, why can’t I?”  We come from the same place, go to the same school, and I will have the same coaches.  If he can do it, I can too.  This is exactly the feeling I got when watching our High School win back-to-back State Championships when I was in 7th and 8th grade and, saw the best player go on to play in college.

Jay Bilas tells a story in his recent book, Toughness, a must read for coaches and parents.  After his sophomore year in high school he was scheduled to have his wisdom teeth removed the 2nd day of the USA Olympic development team tryouts in Los Angeles, attracting some of the best players in the area.  His dad encouraged him to at least attend the first day of tryouts, knowing he wouldn’t be able to make it the second day.

According to Bilas, he showed up, played hard and  “certainly hadn’t embarrassed myself, which was my only real goal.”  Leaving the gym, a legendary writer in the Southern California high school basketball community, said to Bilas, “See you tomorrow.”  As Bilas explained to him that he wouldn’t be able to make it because of his appointment, the writer turned to his dad and said “You might want to reschedule that appointment . Your son was the best player in the gym today”.  Bilas claims this was the most powerful moment in his basketball career and helped develop his belief in himself.  Yes, ultimately, it came from him, but it was ignited from someone else.

Would this statement been powerful and long lasting if Bilas hadn’t been a relentless worker and deserved success?  Most likely not.  That is where false confidence can come into play —  a real problem and possibly a story for a different time.

Another example from the 2012-13 NBA season is the shooting performances of Klay Thompson and Steph Curry. Jon Berry commented in a playoff game that “ Mark Jackson’s confidence in their ability has such an impact on their game”. Berry stated,”he says they are 2 of the best shooters in the history of the game.. Even if he doesn’t really believe it he gets them to believe it.”  Again, without hours and hours in the gym would this be the case? Probably not.

You have to push yourself, but…

You can never push yourself as far as you need to on your own. People are always pushed to new levels. That’s why there are teachers, coaches and leaders.  Thats why Kobe Bryant has a personal coach beyond what the Lakers offer. Its why CEOs have business coaches. Players aren’t going to push through those extra sprints if they don’t actually believe they can do it. As a coach, you can push them through, so eventually they believe on their own.

Dave MacArthur was a huge mentor to me and used to work me out in the off-season at his Colby High School gym.  He did it for the sheer love of individual instruction and I will never forget a few of the workouts we did after my senior year in high school.  He pushed me so hard that I thought I was going to black out.  I would have never been able to get to that level on my own, but because he pushed me, because he made me believe I could fight through the last drills – I WAS able to do this on my own when I got to college.  And when other guys had never been pushed that far before, it made the 30 suicides in 35 minutes for preseason conditioning, a little more bearable.

True Confidence

There are a lot of things that go into developing true confidence.  You must work hard enough to truly deserve success and BELIEVE that you deserve success. You need to be aware of the thousands of thoughts that go through your mind each day. And, begin to control them – changing them to be positive.  In the end — yes it’s on the individual player to internalize these beliefs, but if you’re a coach or mentor, you might be the catalyst.

Episode 6 breaks down the between the legs dribble. Check out the stationary drill for the BEST way to work on this move.

In Episode 5 we breakdown the Inside Out Crossover Dribble and 2 drills to work on the move. This is a great change of pace dribble move

Duane Wilson had two options.

The 6-foot-3 point guard could have coasted through his final spring before arriving at Marquette and played catch-up once offseason workouts and individuals begin. Or, he could have set up seven-day-a-week workouts, finding himself in the gym and weight room more often than not to begin his collegiate career on the run.

Guess which one he chose?

Receiving on-court tutelage from Mike Lee—the trainer who worked with Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson-Odom before the NBA draft—Wilson does ball-handling work and takes reps as the point guard in pick-and-roll action multiple times per week, all in an attempt to get an early feel for collegiate work levels.

“There’s no going through drills or motions,” Wilson said of the workouts. “You go full speed because that’s how it is in college practices. It’s a lot of repetition, but as you keep going it’s like practice. When you go down there in June (to Marquette), I better do this stuff.” Continue reading here.

The only real certainty about high-pressure situations is that players will face them.

If we know pressure situations are a guarantee, how do we prepare for these situations?  Here are 5 ways to help you succeed in crunch time:

1. Preparation Is Number 1:  In order to be confident in any situation, especially a pressure situation, you have to be prepared.  If you know you’ve done everything you can to prepare, then you have nothing to worry about:  You are ready.  “Work ethic eliminates fear.” – Michael Jordan
2. Focus On the Process:  Evaluate yourself and your team on preparation and performance, not the result.  Focusing on the process of improvement will remove the pressure of winning and losing, while also allowing for maximum growth of the team and individual.  As a side note, winning usually occurs more often when you follow this philosophy ( John Wooden, Nick Saban, etc).
3. Create Pressure Situations:  When you practice or workout, create pressure situations so you get used to them.  While working out use time limits or specific goals for number of reps/makes to create pressure.  At practice, control time and situation to create game-like scenarios.  Another way to create pressure is to make players validate any win in practice with a free throw.  If they don’t make it, the drill continues.  If you perform in pressure situations daily, you are much more likely to be successful when it happens in a game.
4. Pressure Isn’t Real:  The whole idea of pressure is created by our minds and is really just our perception of certain situations. For example, a free throw in a 20pt blowout is the exact same task as a free throw with no time left to win the game.  It’s how we perceive the free throw that makes it different.   If you understand that you create the idea of pressure, you can also control how you react to it.  Here’s how Kobe Bryant views pressure: “Everything negative – the challenges, the pressure – is an opportunity for me to rise.”
5. Visualize Success: Research shows that your brain cannot tell the difference between detailed visualization and real events.  Visualize yourself being successful in pressure situations.   You should use all your senses to make the visualization as lifelike as possible.  Do this before bed at night and before each game you play. You can also do this while working out as well (the last second shot, game winning free throw, etc).

With the high school season over and AAU getting underway I thought it’d be a great time to touch on player evaluations.  When I was coaching we used to do them at the beginning and end of each season with individual player meetings throughout the year.  If your coach doesn’t provide you with an evaluation, ask him or her for one — especially if you are playing AAU and have the next 4 months to work on your individual skills.  You can track your progress and hopefully get another evaluation at the end of the AAU season from your coach.

When I played one thing I always looked forward to was being evaluated at the end of the season or at a camp.  I think the reason why can be summed up in two sentences I picked up from a great book, Winning, by Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE.  I couldn’t say it any better than this.

“Maybe some information is hard to swallow at first and yes, ‘bad’ news often hurts, but soon enough, like all knowledge-it’s power-in fact, it’s liberating.  When you know where you stand you can control your own destiny, and what is more fair than that?”

Take the beginning of the season evaluation from your AAU coach and set relevant, realistic goals.  In Jay Bilas’s book, Toughness, he talks about how great Coach K is at setting short, attainable goals – this keeps you motivated and wanting to receive or come up with the next goal.  For more on goal setting check out Luke Meier’s 3 part article here.

So the question is, “What are you going to do now?”  Are you going to sit around and feel sorry for yourself because the coach said you needed to work on your jumper or get in the weight room? Or are you going to form your organized plan of attack and get to work?

In Episode 4 we take you through the Setup Crossover, made popular by Allen Iverson and used by today’s elite guards. We also demonstrate 2 drills to work on this move.