Tag Archive for 'pallacanestro'

Jan Vesely Interview and team mindset

Published on April 20, 2018 in Allenatori, Calcio, Generale, Mental coaching and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: Basket, Jan Vesely, pallacanestro.

The interview to Jan Vesely[1] shows the main relevance to have a mindset growth oriented instead to have fixed mindset. He said:

“It’s just concentration. The first year was with Maccabi; it was tough, but it was 3-0. After that I was injured against Real Madrid, so the team changed the mentality to play without one of the important players and they put even more than the maximum in those playoffs and beat Real Madrid. Last year playing Panathinaikos on the road the first two games and having the pressure to win the EuroLeague and play the Final Four in Istanbul, there was big pressure, so we set our mindset to always be much more focused than in the other games and to give our maximum. I think the secret was in our concentration to do the little things until the end, until the referee stops the game or we get the rebound or something. I think all those things are much more important now than in the regular season. I think the mindset is the most important thing.”

These words demonstrate that Jan Vesely but also the team, have not thought: “We have the talent and the skills to win” but they worked to develop their potential through effort, and practice. They understand the difference between to have the potential and to play at the best to achieve the result you want to achieve. Commitment, deliberate practice and strong task orientation are the secrets of this result. Great talent does not transport the players in great performances. The team has to dive itself inside the match, living each moments as it was the most important. This is the meaning of the sentence: “It’s just concentration.” It seems easy because it’s their job but going in deep it means “Do the right thing in the right moment” and in a fast tactical play like it’s top basketball, to play with this approach it’s a very demanding task.

The players with a growth mindset assume on themselves the responsibility that also if we play at our best, the success is not guaranteed because there is the other team that can play better than us. In any case it’s this kind of mindset that lead them to fight each second of the match, they say to them “I don’t think to the final results or how many mistakes I will do but I know that my teammates and me will perform till the last shot with the maximum focus needed to do our best performance.” It could be a thinking little bit rhetoric, but it’s not true. It means, as Jan Vesely said:

“I think the secret was in our concentration to do the little things until the end, until the referee stops the game or we get the rebound or something. I think all those things are much more important now than in the regular season. I think the mindset is the most important thing.”

[1] http://www.euroleague.net/features/interviews/euroleague-2017-18/i/8obkylpgs38hn48s/jan-vesely-fenerbahce-the-mindset-is-the-most-important-thing

Ti piace? Twittalo

The free throw impact

Published on March 20, 2018 in Allenatori, Mental coaching and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: Basket, Euroleague, free throw, pallacanestro, tiri liberi.

In basketball the free throw is a technical fundamental showing the leading role of the players’ mind.

At first glance, the free throw seems easy to do: its execution is always at the same distance from the basket, the players are not moving and have the time to prepare the shot following their personal rhythm without any direct physical contact from the opponents. At the contrary, the statistics published by EuroLeague Basketball show a different scenario.

In the current season, in all games only 8.5% of the players made the 90% of free throws, 35% made the 80%, 32% the 70% and 24% have scores below the 70%.

Furthermore, the statistics of the last three games show the 54% of the players made at least the 80% of free throws, while the 40% scored from 69% to 36%.

The points scored are higher than those of all matches for the reason that in this second comparison there are only 22 and not 105 players as in the first: increasing the number of the players, increase also the mistake percentages.

These data clearly tell us that this easy shot, from the technical side, can become very difficult. The reason is in the players’ problems to manage their competitive stress. In other words, the free throw could represent one key index to know how much the players are able to be efficiently focused on a specific task when they are under pressure.

In the last years, the sport psychologists have proposed the free throw could be coached using a more effective routine pre-shot. This approach is useful to learn the management of the extra-time they have before the shot. This time, indeed, can be an advantage or a disadvantage. This free throw momentum will be positive only if it has been build a personal routine to forget the distractions (momentum of the match, score, pressure of the opponents, individual worries and fear, personal confidence in that situation, fans’ screams). Otherwise the risk is that the emotions become too strong and difficult to get out from the mind and the players will increase the probability to choke under this psychological overload.

The EuroLeague Basketball statistics confirm the free throws very often represent a problem to cope with also for the best teams, like are who compete in this European tournament, they are the top teams in their countries but less than 44% of the players made the 80% of the shots and 24% made less than 70%. This is not only a European problem. In NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers have had a very bad statistic with the 68% of shots scored and the club sent the players to follow a psychological program to improve the free throws.

The training to improve the free throws can be centered in two different phases. The first regards how to reduce the tension and be focused on a task for few seconds. In this phase, the players practice deep abdominal breathings in a correct way.

This is a fundamental exercise because usually the players are not able to breath deeply and consequently cannot help themselves before the execution of the free shot. After that moment they should notice their breath, don’t change the breath but stay focused on the sensation of air in and out for two minutes, repeating 4/5 times this last exercise.

The final goal of this work is to have an efficient body control – loosing up the muscle tension – and center the attention on the present.

The second phase, is to practice a specific routine when shooting a free throw, following five steps:

Reduce immediately the body tension (through one deep breathing)
Put the body on the line in a comfortable position (feel the body centered in the ground)
Visualize two free shots (mentally rehearsal the shots as you are doing in that moment)
Look on the ring (the gaze must be always oriented in the same point)
Do the shot

The players have to train several times this routine in order to reach an optimal confidence level in this preparation. To reach this kind of proficiency, once the players have planned and established their personal routine, they have to simulate game pressure in practice.

Ti piace? Twittalo

Magic Johnson and team cohesion: An old story always true

Published on March 8, 2018 in Allenatori, Calcio, Generale, Giovani and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: Basket, coesione, Magic Earving Johnson, mood, pallacanestro, Pat Riley, squadra, umore.

In basketball the cohesion is a need to achieve the team primary goal: cope with the opponents with confidence and grit. The internal rivalries, if not limited to few episodes are wasted energies and keep the players engaged in activities with a disruptive impact on training and match. The team must always think in terms of US and the coach should encourage the participation of players, listen them, treat everyone with the same criteria and avoid favoritism, support altruistic behaviors and reduce the individualistic behaviors.

Magic Earvin Johnson’s story is an example of how even a champion have to move from too individualistic behaviors to greater cooperation with the mates. In fact, when Magic played in the Los Angeles Lakers also stood out for his dedication to teamwork: passed and defended rather than thinking about scoring points. It was Magic to explain to his coach Pat Riley as he had established this great attitude.

When he was a little boy, playing Youth League basketball in East Lansing, Michigan, his coach told him he was the best player of the team and he should have to shoot the ball all the time. He did it, scoring most of the points of the team, which won all the time. Despite these victories the other teammates looked miserable, were depressed and nobody thanked or appeared pleased about what he was doing. Magic also was not lucky and he did not want to be this kind of player. He decided to change, becoming more altruistic, defending and passing the ball to the mates. The team mood changed completely and the mates became much more motivated, increased their skills and continued to have success.

What about your team, the players put aside their ego and work to be cohesive independently of the match momentum?

Ti piace? Twittalo

Kobe Bryant announces his withdrawal with a poem of love for basketball

Published on December 11, 2015 in Generale and Giovani. 0 Comments Tags: Basket, kobe bryant, pallacanestro, ritiro, The Players' Tribune.

The Internet was thrown into a tailspin last night when NBA superstar Kobe Bryant announced that he would retire from the Los Angeles Lakers at the end of this season. The announcement was posted on The Players’ Tribune, the sports journalism blog founded by Derek Jeter, and the traffic from the post crashed the site several times during the night.

The most notable thing about Mr. Bryant’s post titled “Dear Basketball,” however, is that it is written in the form of a poem. And even more surprisingly, the poem is really good.

Dear Basketball,

From the moment
I started rolling my dad’s tube socks
And shooting imaginary
Game-winning shots
In the Great Western Forum
I knew one thing was real:

I fell in love with you.

A love so deep I gave you my all —
From my mind & body
To my spirit & soul.

…

You gave a six-year-old boy his Laker dream
And I’ll always love you for it.
But I can’t love you obsessively for much longer.
This season is all I have left to give.
My heart can take the pounding
My mind can handle the grind
But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.

…

Love you always,
Kobe

(The Players’ Tribune)

Ti piace? Twittalo

Ettore Messina’ s words about stress

Published on June 25, 2012 in Generale. 0 Comments Tags: Ettore Messina, pallacanestro, stress.

Per capire meglio cosa sia la tensione agonistica leggete l’intervista a Ettore Messina, nuovo allenatore di pallacanestro del CSKA di Mosca: http://www.repubblica.it/sport/basket/2012/06/25/news/messina_torna_a_mosca-37923797/?ref=HRLS-6

Ti piace? Twittalo

“Che … c’avete dentro”

Published on September 6, 2011 in Generale. 0 Comments Tags: indignarsi, pallacanestro, Pianegiani.

Doveva essere proprio arrabbiato Pianegiani per arrabbiarsi così con i suoi durante la partita con Israele. Un po’ di dignità, chiede, fate almeno un fallo. Quando la disperazione porta a dire queste parole, la delusione per non essere riusciti a trasmettere ai giocatori cosa fare deve essere terribile. Comprensibile e giusto questo sfogo. “Che …. c’avete dentro”: chissa che come è rimbombata questa frase in ognuno, forse è caduta in un baratro sordo ma spero che almeno qualcuno si sia indignato contro se stesso. E per restare sulla stessa linea d’onda terminerei: “altrimenti che campi a fare”.

Ti piace? Twittalo