The Inner Game
December 30th, 2019
Battling the Pressure to Succeed vs. the Reality of the Improvement Process
Over the course of the last couple of seasons we’ve been trying to solve a mystery. We’ve watched players perform drills well, add skills to their bag of basketball tricks and, at times, execute in scrimmages. But we don’t always see the transfer to games.
A couple of simple examples:
One of the best techniques for defeating zone defenses is to attack the gaps in the zone with dribble penetration or pass penetration. The premise is basic. Zones are designed to put defenders in position to defend the ball anywhere inside the three point line and have help defenders in position to assist if needed. When offensive players dribble towards the gap between two zone defenders both defenders respond. This leaves three defenders to cover the remaining four offensive players. As the ball handler passes from the gap to another offensive player the zone defense scrambles to recover. If every offensive players commits to attacking the gap in front of her before passing the zone soon loses its organization and higher percentage scoring opportunities become available. Attacking the gaps in a zone is a fundamental strategy. Yet when we watch games the players raise the ball over their heads, reducing their options from a triple threat position (pass, dribble, shoot) to a single threat position (pass). From this position they pass the ball around the top of the zone. The defenders can relax and keep the ball in front of them. Eventually the offense settles for a long range (lower percentage) shot. Most players won’t attack the gaps.
One more. We work on the skills needed to break down your defender and create scoring opportunities for the player and the team. One fundamental technique is called the rip through or sweep. On the catch the player turns to face the basket. The player rips the ball from one side of her body to the other, below her knees and outside her defender’s body while stepping out and dribbling past the defender. When done correctly it is an effective move for create space from the defender and either score or draw a foul. In games we can see literally dozens of opportunities for players to rip through and score – but they don’t. There are other examples of skills that we see in practice but not in games.
So what’s going on? Why do players practice well but not carry it over to games? Why are we reluctant to try new things? What gets in our way? Are we comfortable with our current skill level? Are we afraid to take chances, risking failure? Do we realize that our reluctance to try may actually lead to the failure we hope to avoid?
Some of the responsibility falls to us, the coaches. We need to be more persistent in demanding performance to a standard. There may also be a translation problem. Players have to adjust to different coaches in different seasons. Each coach uses different terms to describe basic processes and in some cases have different philosophies. Players, who in the end, have to respond to what the coach wants, may be trying to figure out what is acceptable and what is not. Most of the players are really good kids. They do what they are told (and don’t do what they are not told).
There may be other things in the way as well. As Yogi Berra once said “(Basketball) is 90 % mental. The other half is physical”. Kids are often reluctant to try their best when there is a chance of failing. Trying your best means you are putting yourself out there, for all to see. Your confidence can take a hit if you put yourself out there and don’t meet your expectations or the expectations of others. Whenever that happens it makes it harder to try the next time – we can begin to fear failure.
If we take a step back we can see the bigger picture and understand. We live in a culture that worships success. Growing up we look for, and often get, lots of recognition for the slightest accomplishment. Yet we lose sight of the fact that most successful people have failed along the way – and learned from it. Traditional schools condition us to think that failing is a bad thing. Social media is consistently challenging us to be more special than everyone else. In the virtual world we can create an image that is carefully constructed. We can make ourselves seem almost perfect. On the court we are more visible, our play speaks for itself. We can’t edit it and Photoshop it and make it look any better than it is.
On the court we are as human as we can be. All of our strengths and flaws are on display. Like it or not we’re vulnerable to the truth on the court. The beauty of a sport like basketball is that it’s a true reflection of who we are at the moment of play – and the next moment or the next play provides us with a new opportunity to show ourselves again – possibly with a better demonstration of our skills but always with a demonstration of our character. Some feel safer trying to avoid anything that exposes us to evaluation or criticism. So we play it safe. We don’t try new things, we stay with the things we know we can do.
Basketball, like all sports, is supposed to be a real life laboratory for experimenting with real life situations. We can become afraid to shoot, pass or play aggressively. We can worry about letting down the seniors by making a mistake. We can become afraid of failing to meet the coach’s expectations and losing playing time. We can be afraid of letting our parents down.
Playing afraid sucks. It’s not the way play is supposed to be. When you first started playing you didn’t worry about missing a shot. You could brick four in a row and be thrilled when the fifth shot banked in from the corner. Any little sign of improvement would get you excited. But as we get older the expectations change. Success becomes less about our best effort and working hard and more about outcomes – How many points did you score? How many points did she score? Disappointing other people or even ourselves is hard and uncomfortable. So we protect ourselves by holding back, playing it safe.
When most of us decide to play a sport we don’t start by saying, “I’m not going to try”. We want to learn and get better. We’re on the beginning of the trail to mastery. Time will determine if we will remain on that trail. Will we be willing to put in the work that it takes to master the skills that will make us successful? To master those skills you have to engage in purposeful practice. Purposeful practice, by definition, is about recognizing – and owning – what we don’t know and what we don’t do well. It’s about working with focus on those things that we need to improve. To benefit from purposeful practice, and get better, you have to admit that you are not there yet. Of course you always have choices. You can say, “I want to play, but becoming a good player is not that important to me. I just want to have fun.” But if you really want to be good at basketball you only have one choice – put yourself on the trail to purposeful practice and mastery. Know that there will be successes and failures along the way. Know that sometimes you will feel great about your play and sometimes you’ll be discouraged. If you want to be good you have to work through the tough times – focus, with purpose, on the areas where you are struggling.
Purposefully practicing basketball gives us the opportunity to become good players and to develop skills and habits that will stay with us for our lifetime. Sometime in the not too distant future you will have a job, or a relationship or a chance to do something important to you. Or, you might have to deal with loss, or some personal tragedy. To get what you want or to get through the tough times you will have to pull on your internal resources – courage, commitment to a purpose, resilience, and perseverance. You will need support from others as well. Hopefully you’ll find the will to get through. Whatever the outcome – if you quit on it or if you get through it - there will be a connection to the work you put it now and how you handle challenges for the rest of your life.
We are all creatures of habit. Under stress we fall back to what we know – what we are comfortable with. We revert to our instincts – which may not represent our true talent and abilities. Here’s the problem with habits – research says it takes 21 days of focused, re-directed work, to break a habit. So if your habit is a non-productive one, like letting your elbow fly out on your jump shot, it’s going to take time – focused time – to fix it. Likewise, if your habit is to revert to negative self-talk and focusing on your struggles rather than the on-going ups and downs of the improvement process it will take focused time to fix it.
One popular strategy for facilitating change is visualization. Visualization is not as easy as some self-help gurus make it sound – “just be positive and imagine the change you want to make and it will happen.” Psychologist Gabrielle Oettingen says it just doesn’t work that way. She says it has to be “critical visualization”, which includes not just imagining a positive outcome, but focusing on the actual process of improving, including obstacles and problems that might occur.
Oettingen’s research on mental contrasting combined with the research of her husband, Peter Gollwitzer on intention implementation led to a model for change that has been effective in addressing serious issues, like addictions, over-eating, anger issues etc. Less serious problems, like getting unstuck in your basketball development, can use the model as well.
Throw away the terminology and use their acronym W.O.O.P. to summarize the model.
W – Wish – What is your most important concern – the one thing you want to change or
improve?
O – Outcome – What would be the best outcome if you make your wish come true? Imagine
how would you feel if that happens?
O – Obstacles – What is it that holds you back from making your wish come true? Think about
this one. Be honest with yourself. Imagine that inner obstacle getting in your
way.
P – Plan – What can you do to overcome the obstacle? Choose an action or strategy for
addressing it. “If _____________, I will _____________.”
obstacle action / strategy
In a way W.O.O.P. is purposeful practice. You identify something you want to improve. You focus on improving. You learn about the obstacles to improving and you plan to work through the obstacles and improve.
Whatever you do accept the fact that you are not perfect – and either is anybody else. The best college players make only 40% of their shots – 4 out of 10! Most high school players shoot much less than 40%. If you step back and watch a game you’ll see that it is, as Bobby Knight says, a game of errors – everybody is making mistakes out there! Typically, the team that makes the fewest mistakes wins the game. So the game is about getting better, learning from mistakes so you can make fewer of them as the game, and the season, goes on.
If you come back with us in March expect to be pushed to improve. And expect to be pushed again when you reach a new level of skill. And expect to be challenged if you don’t use your new skills. That’s what you sign on to do – get better. We will recognize the things you do well but not at the expense of honest feedback re: what you need to do better.
Don’t wait for us. It’s never too soon (or late) to start. Use your practice time to get reps and try new things. Take a chance once in a while during a game. Learn and get better.
Bob Peterman
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