Basketball Training - Super Bowl Madness and The Mental Muscle
Super Bowl was pretty intense! This definitely wasn’t the best Super Bowl but the turnaround in the 3rd and 4th quarter left me GLUED to the screen. But as I was watching in awe and cringing on my nails, I realized how much pressure is put on athletes to perform. We all watch at home or at a party with excitement and anticipation but the players are the ones that need to push themselves and challenge their limits, mentally, in front of thousands of live fans as well as the millions that are watching from home. The pressure to perform is high whether you’re the quarterback for a Super Bowl match or the point guard for the NBA Finals.
Preparing for a game is an important factor to the success of the player during the game. There are many players on any level of play that simply can’t play at their optimum level because of stage fright or lack of confidence. The fact of the matter is the player must be confident and mentally picture himself to be able to shoot the ball, drive aggressively and be able to rip down the rebound. Michael Jordan said, “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” And I have to agree with Michael in the sense that fear can’t stop you and shouldn’t stop you.
