Week 11

As a coach, I feel that one of our main jobs, aside from teaching our kids how to play the game of basketball the correct way, is to try to give our players confidence in themselves. As an athlete personally, I know just how important it is for you to have confidence in your ability as an athlete. You have to walk on to any field or court with the mentality that you know what you are good at and what you can do well. With confidence, you can basically will yourself to playing well.

Thats has been my main goal with all of my players, but especially one more than some of the others. To save his identity, I am going to refer to him as “L”. L is an fantastic player. He plays great on ball defense, as a point guard, he is able to find his teammates with a pass better than other players of his age and is tough physically. The only thing I would say that “L” lacks is confidence. More specifically, confidence in his shooting ability. 

What most people 

don’t know, is that there is only really one way for someone to truly gain confidence in themselves. The way to do so is by putting in the practice and repetition behind the scenes. By practicing over and over, you will naturally become more comfortable in whatever skill that is that you are particularly working on, then in result, become more confident in yourself. So that was what I did with “L”. After practice, I would make him stay after and shoot with me. We would keep going through the shooting drills until he made the required amount of shots for the drill to end. I wanted him to get in the habit of shooting after practice and shooting to make a certain amount, instead of just shooting and taking a certain amount of shots. Along with making “L” shoot after practice, anytime during practice, I believed that “L” had an open shot, I would encourage him to take the shot. I was trying to show him that I had confidence in his shot and that he should have confidence in himself as well. 

Slowly, but gradually, I can see “L’s” confidence rising. Although he’s still passing up a lot of shots that I feel that he should be shooting and probably could make, he is also taking more shots than he was in the first couple of weeks, which is good. So that’s what my job for “L”. I have to continue to show him that I have confidence in him taking certain shots, and in turn, I hope that he develops a sense of confidence in himself as well. I know how much it helped me throughout my career to have coaches that were confident in my ability. It is what got me to where I am today, and thats what I want to provide for “L”.

Thank you for tuning into my blog, check in next week to see how my week went. Take care everybody!

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