The PGC Blog

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 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.

Take a look at this email correspondence between Dena Evans, former owner of PGC Basketball, and a PGC grad who she corresponds with through the year. As many players (and parents) have these types of concerns during a season, we thought Dena’s response will benefit everyone in our PGC community. Coaches, we recommend you share this with your entire team in order to pro-actively address this common issue.

VIDEO: Watch now as Mano Watsa shows you a creative finish that can be used in the half-court, and in transition, to throw off the timing of a shot blocker.

VIDEO: Discover the one place good point guards want to get to on the court and what they do when they get there.

“Players under pressure revert back to their deeply held habits”. In a big game, against tough defense you will see what type of player you are. You will see what your habits are. Every time I step into a gym almost every athlete looks the same; a little out of control, a little weak with the ball, makes a few too many mistakes, and hardly ever has a plan.

The first time I played in a professional basketball game in Greece I was shocked by the speed. I was not shocked by the speed of the players running up and down the court or by the quickness of the guards, but I was shocked by the speed of the ball. Nothing in my basketball training had prepared me to for the speed of the ball movement. The biggest difference between youth basketball, high school, college and professional basketball is the speed of the passing.

No one is ever quite sure about how a basketball player is supposed to act after a loss. It doesn’t seem necessary to cry for a week, especially since you’re likely to have another game within that time; yet it doesn’t seem quite right to walk off the court laughing either.