When it comes to meeting challenges, our own worst enemy is ourselves. Our self-ego and self-worth are far too wrapped up in achievements. Ego controls much of our behavior. We constantly act out of fear and avoidance, rather than out of the love of a challenge…Our mental habits raise unnecessary barriers and often, unconsciously, drain the vitality from our performances.

Basically, to use common basketball terminology, our ego prevents us from being mentally tough because we do not direct our attention appropriately. To play well, we have to direct our attention appropriately. If a player worries about a coach yelling at him or the official being unfair, he lacks the necessary attention to shoot the ball or find the open player. When a coach is distracted by the official or worried about how the parents in the stands perceive him, he lacks the necessary attention to instruct and make adjustments.

Because of our ego, we act out of a fear of making a mistake rather than out of a desire to make a play. When players play self-consciously, trying not to make a mistake, they inevitably make a mistake. As the old football adage says, “The only thing a prevent defense prevents is winning.”

When we direct our attention to a present activity, we can act decisively and aggressively. For players, this is an important lesson to learn. One of my favorite phrases is “Control the Controllables.” You cannot lose energy or focus concentrating on things outside your control like the opponent, the court, the ball, the official, etc. Worrying about any of these things gives you an excuse, and when you have an excuse, it is easier to accept losing.

Rather than losing focus, concentrate on those things within your control and the result will take care of itself. In athletics, the great players direct their attention appropriately, stay in the moment and control the controllables. The other players often lose focus and expend energy on insignificant activities which hinders their performance.

While shooting practice and working on your zone offense is important, having strong mental skills like maintaining focus and directing attention often has as much to do with a good or bad performance as any technical or tactical skill. Stay focused and attentive to the right tasks at the right time, and work to eliminate the fear of failure which inhibits many players’ performance.

Based on what we just discussed its fair to say that there are two types of players, those are 1.) Task oriented players and 2.) Ego oriented players. A task oriented player lives in the moment and is interested in playing hard and fixing mistakes when they develop. A task oriented player will break situations down and try to understand why it occurred and they will fix it. Ego oriented players blame others for not doing well. Ego oriented players also tend to regress when they make mistakes and they let it affect the outcome of their game. They lose confidence and let prior mistakes effect the rest of their performance. I find it fair to say that all of us have found ourselves in either one of these categories at any given time in our careers, but the emphasis should be to become a task oriented athlete.

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