Confidence Part 1

Confidence is one of those things that every player needs, but that few players have.  Sure, some players might have an aire or appearance of confidence, but for most of us, confidence comes and goes.  I have heard countless players (including myself), say, “I don’t know what happened, but I just lost my confidence and couldn’t get it back.”  And this rings true no matter how good a player might be.

Confidence is also something that separates the good from the best.  It’s an “X-factor” so to speak.  It makes one player rise higher than the next, even if he is not as naturally gifted as others.  It enables one player to take the big shot and/or play big in the big game.  And the lack of it, of course, ruins the careers of many.

My history with basketball confidence is an interesting one.  I always gave the appearance of confidence.  I was good at faking it I suppose.  But deep down inside, I was always questioning myself, and always the worse off for it.  Over the past few years, however, I have had something of a breakthrough when it comes to basketball confidence.  Lessons have been learned and I am a much better player because of it.

I offer you (at least) three lessons in confidence.

1)  Confidence, in order to be real and rich and deep and effective and abiding, must be based on reality.

2)  In order to increase your confidence, you have to learn to talk to yourself rather than listen to yourself.

3)  If you focus too much on confidence, you are bound to lose it.  You are best to just play.

We’ll focus our energies this week on lesson number 1.

1)  Confidence, in order to be real and rich and deep and effective and abiding, must be based on reality.  

What I mean by this is that when it comes to playing basketball, you cannot convince yourself of something that isn’t true.  Confidence, in order to be real and rich and deep, needs to have a basis in reality.  You need legitimate reasons to be confident in your basketball abilities.  As human beings, we are oftentimes fond of deceiving ourselves, but as basketball players, the evidence is too obvious.  We are either good shooters or we are not; good defenders or not; good passers or not.  The evidence speaks for itself.

Take shooting, for example.  If we are making 4-10 in practice, standing still, with no defenders, why are we surprised when we shoot 2-10 during the game?  Should we have confidence in our jump-shot if the evidence proves otherwise?  I think not and trust you agree.  Or if the offense is scoring on us at will, should we have confidence in our defensive abilities?  The answer is obvious.

This being true, we come to see how important proper training really is.  Not only does practice strengthen the muscles we use for basketball and, when it comes to highly-precise movements such as shooting and dribbling, enable precise muscle memory, but practice also builds confidence.  As a shooter, I practice not only to train my body how to shoot, but to train my mind how to think.  That is, to train my mental ‘confidence’ muscles by seeing the ball go in the basket time and again.  See, I need to teach myself, “When I shoot, the ball goes in.” And practice enables me to do just that.  It renews my thinking and helps me become a more confident shooter.

Naturally, this is nothing terribly profound, but it must be pointed out that the mental training of the mind for greater confidence is one of the most important aspects of practice.  Practically speaking, if you want to grow in confidence, practice until you do.  If you are not comfortable dribbling with your left, practice until you are.  If you lack confidence in your jump-shot, shoot until you lack it no longer.

Of course, this isn’t the whole story.  But remember, we are only on point #1.  Two other points still remain.  For now, remember this:  you can’t lie to yourself as a basketball player.  Be diligent to give yourselves reasons to be confident (via practice) and your confidence is bound to increase.

Growing in confidence with you,

Joe