The PGC Blog

Do you ever feel like your performance in games is consistently inconsistent? That you’re putting in the same hard work at practice every day, yet some days you play really well and others you don’t play well at all? If that’s you, you’re not alone. If that’s not you, don’t worry—the frustration is coming soon!

No one is quite sure about how a player is supposed to act after a loss. It doesn’t seem necessary to cry for a week, especially since you are likely to have another game within that time. Yet, it doesn’t seem quite right to walk off the court laughing either. Naturally, some losses will be more bothersome than others, and, just as naturally, every player will lose sometimes. Therefore, it seems intelligent to prepare a response in advance for those unhappy times when the inevitable happens, you lose.

No one is quite sure about how a player is supposed to act after a loss. It doesn’t seem necessary to cry for a week, especially since you are likely to have another game within that time. Yet, it doesn’t seem quite right to walk off the court laughing either. Naturally, some losses will be more bothersome than others, and, just as naturally, every player will lose sometimes. Therefore, it seems intelligent to prepare a response in advance for those unhappy times when the inevitable happens, you lose.

A zone defense should be one player guarding the ball and four players helping guard the ball. However, in youth basketball, zone defense turns into one player jumping out of position and reaching for steals while teammates stand and watch it happen. Most youth players have yet to develop strong man-to-man defensive skills, and so many youth coaches and teams tend to default to a zone in order to get cheap wins instead of developing long-term, winning basketball habits.

If you have a good coach and you are a good player, most likely you have already learned that the only intelligent response to criticism from your coach is to accept it, keep your mouth shut and try to learn from it. No one, especially tough competitors, can ever be expected to like criticism, but you certainly must be able to take it and learn from it.

Whether we realize it or not, each of us is selling something to those around us every day. In everything we do, we’re either selling positive or we’re selling negative. It’s in how we speak to others. How we show up to class or work. How we contribute or contaminate in practice. And how we live our daily lives.

A click is when the ball comes into your hands and goes out again in an eighth of a second. Not a second later, after you look around. Not a moment later, after you first check to see if you can get a shot. But immediately. You catch the ball, you throw the ball–like a second baseman on a double play. The only way you can make a click pass is to know before you get the ball what you are going to do with it. That takes good court awareness.

Today, I want you to consider not only how to get the most out of your ONE mind, but how to take advantage of all three of your minds. Wait, three? Yes, each of us has three minds with which we learn and teach. Learning to access each mind—whether you’re an athlete or coach—will impact how quickly you improve and DRASTICALLY affect how well you perform.