The PGC Blog

Self-discipline is something you need to practice the way you practice a skill like shooting a basketball or hitting a baseball or throwing a football. The more you practice self-discipline, the easier it becomes and the prouder you become of it.

Here are three simple things great basketball teams and players do that most teams are missing.

The biggest mistake players make in faking is that they think they have to get through the fake quickly and get on with their real purpose—their move to the basket, and the result is a poor, unconvincing fake. Stay low so you can maneuver precisely. You may think that by staying low you are sacrificing speed, but players who fake and put the ball on the floor far out in front of them, just a few inches off the floor, are very difficult to guard.

Here are five ways to practice your mental toughness off the court. If you practice these five things, every day, you’ll develop greater self-discipline. You’ll become unstoppable in anything you do. It is five things you will have to rise above your feelings every day. That is how you build mental toughness. You develop, as a habit, a muscle of rising above your feelings to level of your aspirations and commitments.

This meant that his TRAINING time was much larger than his TEACHING time. The lion’s share (no pun intended) of practice was spent with bodies moving and shoes squeaking. That’s the way HABITS are formed. Repetition is king and there are no reps when my lips are moving and players are standing and listening.

This defensive maneuver really might get you a game-winning steal someday. Because of the psychology behind it, it has a better chance of working at the end of a game than it does at the beginning when there is no pressure. If you use this play early in a game, you are likely to get out of position, get beaten and get taken out of the game by your coach. It is not good basketball to be lunging for steals early in a game…

I invented the term LONHOBIRAT some time ago to indicate what I thought was most important about shot selection. It means, get a Lay-up Or a shot with No Hand up, On Balance, In your Range with Adequate Time to shoot. The word covers most of what is important in selecting shots but, over a period of time, I found myself changing my own way of teaching shot selection.

I have worked with youth basketball camps for 14 years now: 8 years running my own and 6 years with PGC Basketball. It is one thing to organize and run a camp and another to choose one for your own children. Having kids approaching the age range for these camps, I had to stop and ask myself, “What do I really want in a basketball camp for my kids? What is it that makes a good basketball camp?”