Mistakes! Leave That Brick Behind
#38- Mistakes! Leave That Brick Behind
by Alan Lambert
Introduction
"The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything."
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
There is one skill that every single player who has ever played the game has fully developed and tested, making mistakes. I know that sounds like a bit of an odd statement. But in life and on the court it is a hard, cold the truth. What enables some players to deal with mistakes and overcome them better than others? Today's Playground Pointer focuses on understanding the value of the mistakes you make, knowing their causes, and providing you tips for overcoming this your mistakes. The season end is approaching. Teams are faced with win or out situations at all levels. The pressure is up, the rewards are high, and the results of your performance will be something you carry with you the rest of your life. How you handle your mistakes will say a lot about what kind of player you really are.
Wilt Chamberlain missed 10,816 shots in his career. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar missed even more, 12, 470. Robert Parish missed 8,300, and in half a career so far Shaquille O'Neal has missed 5,287 and counting. Yet what each of these great players has in common is that they hold a Championship ring. If each missed shot, or turnover they made kept them from having confidence and striving forward to achieve bigger and better things the only ring they would have garnered would have been in their bath tubs. What else is interesting is that all four of these players have career Field Goal Shooting percentages in the top 20 all times above 53% of all the shots they took.
The same can be said for the all-time NBA Assist leaders, John Stockton or Magic Johnson. If you looked at their stats they both have averaged more than 10 assists per game over the course of their careers, yet surely they have turned the ball over a decent number of times as well. Bill Fitch recorded 1157 loses as a coach in his 25 years as an NBA Coach, and Lenny Wilkins 1107 in 28 plus years. Yet both have survived more than a quarter century in a profession where many coaches do not survive a season or two. Yet both have won NBA Championship rings. So here's the point I'm trying to drive home to you today. You can't achieve lofty goals as a player without overcoming your mistakes, dealing with adversity and moving forward.
What Causes Mistakes?
First and foremost is effort. Any effort will produce some mistakes. The turtle never moves forward if it doesn't stick it head out of it's shell. So recognize that effort naturally produces mistake. Effort and mistakes are like a horse and carriage they go together. They are inseparable. When you accept that mistakes are a part of effort you are freed to exert more effort.
Fatigue is often a key factor in your making mistakes. Mental and physical fatigue are teammates. If you are mentally slow and not alert you will make physical errors. Conversely if you are poorly conditioned, or exert your energy in a wasted fashion in games, your physical fatigue will certainly lead to mental errors as well.
Expectations of yourself, your coach of you, between teammates, or coaching staff and players can lead to mistakes if the expectations are unrealistic, or you are placed in situations of play for which you are not adequately prepared. This might mean you haven't practiced enough to execute under pressure. It might mean that your team, and coaching staff are over confident and have the expectation that you will easily walk over an opponent with half your game. Expectations are external to the actual execution of the skills moment by moment in a game, which are what produces the final results.
Relaxing when you should be exerting effort also leads to mistakes. Taking your performance for granted is a sure way to see an increase in the number of mistakes you make in a game. Staying relaxed under pressure is a key to good performance, but relaxing your effort is not.
Trying to impress others with your performance rather than concentrating on the task at hand will also contribute to mistakes on the court. When your focus moves from the on court process of execution to external factors which take your mind off the court you are headed for errors.
Fear of failure is another factor resulting in mistakes. To improve and grow as a player you must take risks, but make them risks of effort (calculated risks). Fear is one of the great motivators in life, however failing to try out of fear is a sure fire method for committing mistakes. Realize that try or not you will make mistakes. But mistakes of commission are much more acceptable to your coach than errors of omission.
Fear of failure is another factor resulting in mistakes. To improve and grow as a player you must take risks, but make them risks of effort (calculated risks). Fear is one of the great motivators in life, however failing to try out of fear is a sure fire method for committing mistakes. Realize that try or not you will make mistakes. But mistakes of commission are much more acceptable to your coach than errors of omission.
Concentrating on the wrong things at the wrong time will also produce mistakes on the court. Renown Peak Performance specialist Jeff Janssen describes it as competing in the process zone during competition or in the outcome zone. When you concentrate on the process and execution in performance you are much more likely to reduce your errors and produce positive results than if you let your mind drift out to outcome zone, or worrying about the outcome of a performance.
Finally, recognize as a player that there are external factors that will produce mistakes that you have no control over. These might involve poor timing or positioning interacting with multiple players, a slippery playing surface, an uneven bounce on a section floor in a foreign arena, etc.
I call these X factors. These are things that no matter how much you prepare will influence the outcome of your performance. You must live with these X factors and overcome their consequences if you are to be a successful player. You cannot play the victim, as the X factor is a constant in the world, everyone faces it, and those that are successful players accept it as part of the game.
I call these X factors. These are things that no matter how much you prepare will influence the outcome of your performance. You must live with these X factors and overcome their consequences if you are to be a successful player. You cannot play the victim, as the X factor is a constant in the world, everyone faces it, and those that are successful players accept it as part of the game.
Tips For Overcoming Your Mistakes
1. "NEXT PLAY" - Duke's Hall of Fame Coach Mike Krzyzewski has his teams focus on the motto "next play". Whenever something happens positive or negative, it is more important to concentrate on executing the next task at hand. Great players do not live on past performances, they compete every day, every play.
2. Leave the Brick Behind- Jeff Janssen uses this analogy which I'd like to borrow because it is very apropos. He says "mistakes are like bricks....you can carry them but after a while they get pretty heavy and limit where you go." Eventually your bricks will stop you cold if you carry enough of them, or let any one experience become a brick collar. Instead let each brick go. Place it behind you never to trip over it again. During a game, if you make a mistake. Think of it as a brick and simply turn around and put it behind you.
3. Don't Panic- When you or your team make a mistake never panic. One of the most difficult things for you as a player (and as a team) to do if to put poor performance or execution behind you. Great players never let a poor start, or bad phase in a game, inhibit them from competing in the next phase of the game. When you experience that bad start out of the gate, or in game slump, focus instead on "winning the next few minutes". Break your execution down into smaller segments of time. Many highly successful coaches use this strategy when their team has performed poorly. They say "let's win the next 4 minutes." In these smaller segments focus on the execution of 2 or 3 key elements of the game (e.g., your defensive footwork, getting to the boards, staying between your man and the basket, and so forth). If the game is down to one or two possessions, then concentrate on winning possession by possession. As a player it means you bear down in your concentration level and execute the critical screen perfectly, or step out to hedge the pick and roll at that critical moment. If the game is in the last seconds, your execution segments becomes 10 or 15 seconds blocks of time instead of 4 minutes. Never panic, execute to win.
4. Get Tough! to get back- No one in life or in the game of basketball can bring their "A" game every single time they step on the court. However those players that are successful overcoming their mistakes recognize this point and GET TOUGH, dig down and pick up their game when they're having an off performance. Soft players use the "didn't bring my A game" excuse to let go, and to explain their no show when mistakes pop into their performance. Great player get touch, dig down and give their best performance even when their "A" game is missing, and their performances are filled with errors.
5. See the Big Picture- Great players never let a mistake, or mistakes define who they are. Have you caught yourself as a player hanging your head after you've committed a turnover, missed a open shot, or have been beaten defensively to the basket. As a person and player you will always be of more value and able to contribute to your team than any one mistake you ever make. Do not let a moment in time, one experience define who you are as a player.
6. Mistakes are Temporary, Local, and Correctable- If you find yourself feeling like your errors are ongoing, unchangeable, and irreversible than you need a change of attitude. Big time players only see their errors as temporary. Their mistakes do not define their whole game but instead are only localized to one specific act on the court. "I blew it", I'm going to leave that brick behind, and I'm going to change the next play. Key here is that you remember your mistakes are correctable by subsequent performance. If you have had a poor first half performance that is only temporary. The second half is still to be played. If you have committed an error in failing to box out, it doesn't mean you are then required to pass the ball poorly the next possession. Your mistake is local, and not global to your performance. When you realize you have committed a mistake, block out outcome zone distractions, and concentrate on execution of the next skill sequence when it comes time to execute the skill again. Your performance is always correctable no matter how many errors you make if you try.
7. Use Your Mistakes As Challenges- The most successful players in the game today look at performance errors and adversity as challenges. One of the best examples of that is Shaquille O'Neal's free throw shooting performance. No one in the past couple of years has taken so much verbal criticism, or received tons of advice as to how to change his performance. Yet I am certain that Shaq looks at performance at the line more as a challenge than a hindrance. When you make a mistake, challenge yourself up to perform better the next time down the court.
8. Concentrate on the Things You Can Control- Many of the mistakes and adversity you will face on the court are due to factors out of your control. What you can control is your reaction to, concentration, your confidence in yourself, and attitude when facing these circumstances.
9. Turn Your Wounds Into Wisdom- Great players learn from their mistakes and don't commit them again. Your errors of the past are the wisdom and success of the future. Think of your game mistakes as a trampoline to better performances rather than a stone around your neck.
10. Persist, persist, and persist more- Successful players have recognized and accepted that mistakes are part of the game. What makes them different is that they persist even during their poorest performances. Remember this, the player that fails is typically one who doesn't recognize how close to successful performance they are when they gave up. Quitting on yourself when you have made a mistake is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
The tougher you get when you have made a mistake, the better your chances of surviving, and growing into a highly successful player over the course of a game, a season, and throughout your career. Believe in yourself, concentrate on the process of playing each play, and leave that brick behind.
There are many examples in the history of basketball where a player has make a significant mistake and gone on to greatness. Maybe none so more visible than then 1993 NCAA Division I Championship game where Michigan's Chris Webber inadvertently called a timeout his team didn't have with 11 seconds remaining in the game costing his team a chance at the last shot to win the game. Chris had scored 23 points and 11 rebounds nearly carrying his team to the title against North Carolina, only to error at the most critical point of the game. A lesser person or player might have let that mistake (temporary) determine who they were as a person and as a player. However, we all know the rest of this story. Chris Webber has become one of the NBA's best players with the Sacramento Kings, an All-Star, all because of how he handled his mistake.
Check back next month for another Playground Pointers courtesy of The Basketball Highway®.