🏆 How do your athletes handle pressure?

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ONE THOUGHT

Pressure is man-made.

The best players are able to keep pressure on the "outside" and not let it affect their thinking on the "inside."

I witnessed this firsthand this past weekend in our basketball game vs. a very talented Minneapolis North team at the Breakdown Tip-Off Classic at Hopkins High School.

This Breakdown event is an invite event with the best teams in the state of Minnesota competing. We had a first half that I could not have scripted any better. We played great defense, handled their ball pressure, moved the ball, and hit shots. We were up 21 points at the half.

The 2nd half was not as kind. Minneapolis North brought even more ball pressure; we missed multiple open looks from the 3-pt line and inside the paint and missed a couple of front-end 1 and 1s late in the game. Even with that, we still had an 11-point lead with just under 3 minutes and an 8 pt lead with a minute to go.

We had some poor passes and decisions, lost our poise a bit late in the game, and allowed Minneapolis North to take the lead with 10 seconds to go on an offensive rebound.

The video below is how the game ended. Our Lake City junior, Jaden Shones, is at the FT line with 2.7 seconds to go, down one, in one of the most intense game settings I have been a part of in my many years of coaching.

Jaden proceeds to not even hit the rim, swishing both FT's, and allowing our team to win the game, even though so much adversity and "pressure" hit us late.

Pressure is man-made.

Watch the final minute of the game below. And after, keep reading, as I share what I believe we as coaches can do to help our athletes manage pressure.

Incredible poise and confidence in a challenging moment.

When the guys asked Jaden after the game what he was feeling, his response was perfect. He said, I just imagined shooting free throws with my teammate at the end of practice. I didn't even sense the people and crowd and noise around me.

Pressure is man-made.

Jaden did not allow the pressure of the moment; the pressure that everyone watching the game was feeling, to affect him.

Many people succumb to this pressure. They feel the energy around them. They hear everything. Their focus is elsewhere. Their focus is on the "outside."

The best players are able to focus on the moment and drown out the outside noise that everyone else in the gym feels.

They focus on the moment.

Here are a couple of tips I share with our players about pressure:

1. STEP 1: Pressure is Man-Made - We are what we believe. Pressure only occurs because we allow it to happen. When our outside circumstances build-up, we have a choice as to whether we let it affect us and feel "pressure" or not. Some people are better at this than others, but it is a choice, and it is a response to your external environment. You do ever feel pressure when you are shooting free throws in your driveway or at practice. Just knowing this is true is the first step to moving on to the second step.

2. STEP 2: Implement the "Secret." - The "Secret" is -> "Just because you have a negative thought does not mean you have to believe it." The most successful people are able to talk to themselves instead of listening to themselves. We survive as humans because our brain puts negative thoughts in our heads. These are needed to survive (i.e. don't walk in front of traffic, don't cut yourself with scissors, don't live recklessly, etc.). Negative thoughts are normal in life and in sports. We all have choices at the moment to believe what our brain is telling us, OR we can talk to ourselves and choose another direction. This can be a life-changing understanding or mindset. In the game above, our player could have easily had negative thoughts creep in. He could have succumbed to the pressure others were trying to put on him. But what did he do? He TOLD himself what he was doing. He was shooting free throws with his buddy at practice. He visualized that. He won the battle with his mind. He did not "listen" to the negative that could have crept into his mind.

This is such a powerful concept for kids, and adults for that matter, to understand and apply. Understand and believe that pressure is man-made. Learn the "Secret" and apply this in your life and in your sport. This is one such example of why sports are such powerful means to teach critical life lessons to kids.

Good luck!

TWO QUOTES

"In all my years one thing has never changed; You win with serious, tough-minded players. That never changes" - Tom Thibodeau

"I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game." - Paul 'Bear' Bryant

THREE TWEETS

BOOKS: Culture WINS and Coaching GOLD

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