I had a really interesting conversation with one of my athletes last week. She is a gymnast that competes at a very high level and holds several of the strength training records in my gym for girls and in some cases overall (boys included). She had a bad practice that day and was not herself during our workout which is very uncharacteristic of her. I asked her what was wrong and we got to talking about her practice and how she had not performed as well as she wanted to that day or in recent weeks. She told me of how the pressure to perform was getting to her and that she was making many mistakes that were causing her self doubt. Her story reminded me of one of my former basketball players who scored over 1400 career points in high school and is one of the best players that I have ever coached. So I told her about him and how when he was young he used to get really down on himself if he missed a shot…yes, one shot. As his coach, I was convinced that he really believed that he should make every shot he took. I had to explain to him that it was okay to miss and okay to make mistakes. Eventually he began to understand this concept and he adapted mentally. In doing so, he became a fantastic basketball player and football player who ended up playing wide receiver for the Oklahoma Sooners and has a great chance of making it to the NFL this year. She was surprised that I was comparing this basketball player to her but the overall concept of the story made sense. Failure is inevitable, it is what you do after you have failed that makes the difference.
In recent weeks, I have been impressing upon the basketball players that I work with for skill development and the athletes that I work with for sports performance to take themselves out of their comfort zone. When I see basketball players working out around the gym, they are just too comfortable with what they are doing. Instead of pounding the basketball hard while dribbling, they pat it softly like it is a little bunny rabbit that they are afraid to hurt if they hit it too hard. I see athletes training for sports performance who instead of pushing their limits, and getting up their heart rate workout slowly and methodically, taking long breaks and making sure that they hit their friends up with a text message a few times during the workout. This is just too comfortable and maybe that is why these basketball players and athletes workout this way, there is just no way they can fail or make mistakes and they enjoy that type of perfection. However, they will never improve. Being comfortable in your workouts means you are afraid to fail and fear a failure will never result in success.
Success is achieved by taking yourself out of your comfort zone to a place where you have no choice but to make mistakes and fail. It is only through these mistakes and failures that we become better athletes, basketball players, or whatever it is you are training for. That is, as long as we realize the mistake that is made and correct it immediately. I have also recently been preaching to my athletes and basketball players to watch and analyze everything that they do during their workouts. Not to the point that it disrupts the workout, but briefly, just long enough to know what mistake, if any, they may have made. For example, a good jump shooter will consistently watch their jump shot. They will watch it not only to see if it goes in the basket but also how it goes in the basket (flat or with arc). They will watch their jumper to see if they have missed and if so, where (short, long, right, left, etc.). All of this is valuable information to a jump shooter because it allows them to know their mistakes and make corrections. Similarly, a person working out in the gym might watch themselves in the mirror for more than determing if their chest and biceps are getting pumped up. In fact, they may actually look at themselves to determine whether or not their form is good on the set of lunges they are performing. Are they keeping their back straight the whole way through? Are they stepping forward and then leaning so that their knee pushes out in front of their toe (a major mistake)? Once again, this is valuable information to an athlete who is training. If these mistakes are being made, knowing that they exist allows the athlete to make corrections and can, therefore, lead to improved performance in the lift and ultimately in their sport.
Improving your performance on the basketball court or any field of play comes from failure. It comes from taking yourself out of your comfort zone in order to push your body and skills to a new limit that will cause you to make mistakes. Making mistakes is a positive for all athletes as long as you realize that you have made a mistake and you fix it. Michael Jordan once said, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Michael Jordan’s success was built on many failures because he failed and he learned. So, failing at something is okay, it is failing to fail that is not.
Committed to taking your game to the NEXT level,
Rich Stoner
USAW Sports Performance Coach
Elite Basketball Training, LLC
