The following announcement for the upcoming Score More Basketball Camp showed up in the Keene Sentinel …
Category: winning mindset
Do you have a Winning Attitude?
What does it take to become a winner? Many people talk about a “Winning Attitude” but how many actually practice it? How many of us even know what goes into a winning attitude?
Today I will look at what goes into a winning attitude, using basketball as the example, and how we can cultivate a winning attitude in ourselves and our teams.
Quick Summary of a Winning Attitude:
- A Winner sets high standards
- A Winner expects to win
- A Winner learns from losses
- A Winner prepares to win
- A Winner embraces challenges
- A Winner enjoys the process
“How you do anything is how you do everything”
Have you ever heard the phrase, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person”? The thinking is that someone who is already busy will already have the habits in place to get things done where someone who finds ways to NOT be busy is simply avoiding getting things done. Winning is a habit and like the saying goes, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” If you have a winning attitude, you will apply it to all aspects of your life. It doesn’t mean you have to be competitive with everyone in your life (that’s called “a jerk”) but you can recognize what your goals are and do whatever is needed to meet those goals.
How do I apply this as part of a Winning Attitude?
There are opportunities every day to “let it slide” or settle for less than the best that you can do. Winners know that if you will give up on the small things you will give up on the big things too. Small actions prepare you for big successes. A Winning Attitude means holding yourself to a higher standard than other people. Most people are not winners. It is a fact of life, but winning is a choice and you can make that choice … every single day.,
“In it to Win it”
If you are going to play, you are going to win. A Winning Attitude is about committing to being a winner. Are you going to win every single time? Not necessarily… but winners start with their goal in mind and focus on what it takes to win.
“Win or Learn”
Even if you are committed to winning, there will be times when you encounter someone who is better prepared or has better strategies or tactics and you come out on the short end of the competition. Does this mean you Lose? Not necessarily… You have a choice. You can either Lose or Learn. If you quit after you are beaten, then you Lose. If you Learn from the experience and apply it to make you and your team better, then you are better prepared to win the next time. As motivational speaker Les Brown says, “It’s not over until I win.”
The Will to Win vs. The Will to Prepare to Win
Winning is a result of preparation. Games are won based on what you do in practice and HOW you practice always shows up in how you play. Winners are always looking for ways to improve, whether it is physically, mentally or by developing their skills.
Embrace The Challenge
Someone with a Winning Attitude is not intimidated by challenges. They are seen as opportunities to test your abilities and develop confidence. Winning means that you find ways to win, even when there are obstacles or strong competition.
In fact, winners enjoy the challenge. They recognize that without challenges and obstacles, they can never find out how good they really are. That’s why going undefeated by playing poor competition can be a curse in disguise. Certainly you want to win when the stakes are the highest, but if you don’t face any competition before the championship game then how do you know if you are ready? Have you faced strong competition that could bring out the best that you have? A winner looks for strong competition because they know that it will make them better.
How do I develop my Winning Attitude?
Practice, Practice, Practice…
Challenge. Learn. Repeat.
A winning attitude is all about
1) Embracing Preparation & Competition,
2) Learning and Growing, and
3) Enjoying the process.
You can change your attitude immediately… if you recognize where it needs to change. This article has given you some ideas but it is up to you to catch yourself when you are not in a “winning attitude” and make the necessary changes.
This sounds hard. Is it realistic?
Like I’ve said before, not everyone is a winner even though anyone can become a winner. Will it take extra effort? Absolutely. Will you have to give up some things that might have been “nice to have”? Sure. Will it be worth it? Certainly.
An excellent book for anyone looki
ng to develop a winning attitude is “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. One of the key ideas that Jim Collins writes about is the reason there are so few “Greats”.
“Good is the enemy of Great” – Jim Collins
Most people settle for “good” or “good enough” while winners are the ones that go for “Great”. The funny thing Jim Collins found as part of his research for the book was that it takes no more effort to be great. Different effort and concerted, focused effort but not necessarily “more effort”. That begs the question… If you can see yourself as good, why not go for great?
Building Basketball Confidence – The Keys to Success
Confidence is critical to success both on the court and in life. Do you have the confidence to take the shot with the game tied as the closing seconds wind down? Can you step to the foul line and make your shots to win the game? Do you have enough confidence to ask out someone on a date? Can you try something new without knowing if you will succeed? It all boils down to one thing… Confidence.
After watching the video on this page featuring the Dena Evans story about her loss of basketball confidence when she was playing at Virginia, you will start to see some of the ways that a basketball player can undercut their own confidence as well as some ideas for building it back up.
There are 3 keys to Building Confidence, whether it is on the basketball court or in real life. They are:
- Your Habits of thinking,
- What you Focus on and
- How you have Earned confidence.
How does your loss of basketball confidence start?
It would be nice to know where the basketball confidence went to in the first place. A loss of basketball confidence might start with a bad game. Maybe you were not feeling 100% or were coming back from an injury and did not perform at the level you expected. You might not even notice when it exactly started. Dena doesn’t go into much detail in her video. The important point in time is when you start to question your skills, your abilities and once that happens, it can be like a snowball rolling down a hill, gaining in size and momentum until it cannot be stopped… or can it?
Your confidence is built on the words you use in your head. Maybe a coach or a family member noticed your poor performance and gave you a “suggestion”. They probably were trying to be helpful but you translated that into something like, “I’m not good enough” and the snowball started rolling.
Each failure or non-success after that was noticed by your mind and added to the “evidence” that you are not good. Pretty soon, it was all that you could think about.
Where do the words in our head come from?
Most of the rules we have for ourselves, the beliefs we hold about the world, were all, at one time or another, presented to us by other people. It starts with your parents when you are a child and is built on by the friends you have growing up and into adulthood. Coaches can give us words or rules that we carry into life and apply not just on the basketball court. On top of this, there is the media … with advertisements and any number of “talking heads” telling us what is right or wrong and what type of car or perfume we need to purchase. All these words mold how we think and how we act. In many ways it is helpful since we are able to understand and interact with society, but in many ways it prevents us from become the best that we can become.
How do I overcome the beliefs holding me back?
The first step in taking back control of your mind and restoring your confidence is to notice the thoughts that are causing the problems. Every time you think, “I messed up” or “I’m not good enough”, ask yourself “How could I look at this differently?” Almost every situation can be seen from at least two different “angles” and once you start noticing your negative thoughts, you can decide that belief would be more empowering and would make you more confident in your basketball game.
For example, if you notice yourself thinking “I can’t believe I missed that shot. I am a lousy shooter”, you can step back and realize that even the best shooters miss and, assuming it is true, you have practiced that shot enough that it was a good shot to take and a miss is not the end of the world. Maybe you were even defended well on that shot. Don’t look for excuses but also be sure you are dealing with the reality of the situation. You don’t have to beat yourself up for every miss. If there is something to learn from an experience, take the lesson, apply it somehow and keep getting better.
Confidence is a habit.
As you start to notice your thoughts, positive and negative, you will probably find that you have to make an effort to correct your negative thoughts, at least in the beginning. This is part of training your brain to work for you. Eventually, more positive thoughts will fill your mind and fewer negative thoughts will find their way in. Your confidence will grow as you build the habit of controlling your thoughts… but that is not “the end”.
What you Focus on Increases
Aside from “catching” negative thoughts, it is important to use your Focus, or attention, to build your confidence as well. Dena Evans talks about how after her sophomore season, she needed to write down 10 things she did well after every pickup game or workout. At first she struggled but eventually she was able to Focus on what was going right during a game which make it easier for her to write down her “10 Good Things” and start reviving her confidence in her basketball skills & abilities.
Note for Coaches:
If you are a coach and you see that your team lacks confidence, maybe you are focusing on the wrong thing. I am not suggesting that you avoid correcting mistakes. That’s an important part of learning and developing as a player but don’t forget to reinforce the good things that your team is doing, especially as they learn new skills. They might not recognize in the heat of a competitive game or scrimmage that they just successfully used the move you have been teaching them for the past three weeks. Applaud the successes and you will get more of them. Focus on good things and they will multiply. As the coach, how you deliver your feedback is a critical part of your player’s basketball confidence.
Thinking isn’t enough
After reading this article, maybe you have come to the conclusion that all you have to do is 1) Create the Habit of controlling your thoughts and 2) Focus on the good things. Those are two important elements but basketball confidence is not that simple. You don’t get confidence without EARNING it. What does this mean? It means that you work hard on your moves. It means you put in extra effort so you are in peak physical shape. If shooting is an important part of your game, it means that you have shot more shots than probably anyone else you know. You KNOW you are good because you have put in the effort, learned what you need to know and have built your basketball confidence based on results.
You know that you can hit that shot with the seconds winding down because you have practiced it. You know that you can execute a spin move that leaves the defender looking stupid … because you have practiced it… and practiced it… and practiced it. You have earned the right to be confident … and now you know how to control your mind so that it is there when you need it.
Is Winning Important?
Do you want the short answer? Here it is…Yes.
Winning is important… but not for the reasons that most people think. Let me ask you, “What is your relationship with the concept of winning?”
Sports are a metaphor for life…
… and if a person doesn’t learn what it takes to win through competition and sports, it is very likely that they will struggle to learn it in other ways throughout their life. The idea of “Winning” is not without controversy. It is a concept that many people have deeply held beliefs around, often to the detriment of the people they are trying to develop… their players.
The 3 Faces of Winning
There seem to be three reactions to the topic of “winning”; not counting Charlie Sheen’s “approach”, which we won’t be addressing.
First, there is the “winning at all costs” camp which justifies all kinds of reprehensible and sometimes immoral or even illegal behavior in the “pursuit of winning”. Eventually though, these people are removed from their positions of authority because their behavior is not tolerated by their players, parents and their organizations.
On the other hand…
On the other (second) side of “winning” are the people who feel “everyone is a winner” and their downfall is that as they pass out trophies for everyone, they create youngsters who feel entitled to win at everything they do. Sadly, these kids will either be disappointed when they realize that the real world doesn’t work that way or they will simply give up without putting in any serious effort. This philosophy of “winning” takes away the reward for effort and improvement and cripples kids chances of achieving their dreams in the future.
Another way to look at this is through Carol Dweck’s framework from her book titled “Mindset”. She explains the difference between a “growth mindset” where a loss is simply feedback for future growth versus a “fixed mindset” which says that someone either has talent or they do not so any loss indicates a lack of talent and there is no reason to pursue future challenges in that area.
And this one is “Just Right”…
The third approach to winning, and the one that I support, leverages the challenges offered by competitive sports so that players discover what they might be capable through a sustained effort and focus. It is firmly planted in the “Growth Mindset”. I like to say, “Winning is a byproduct. It is what happens when proper preparation meets productive attitude.”
Sport is a unique opportunity for players to learn lessons not easily acquired in other ways. My teams pick up things like “How to work together as a team toward a common goal”, “How to push past discomfort to improve your physical conditioning”, and “How to ‘Master the Mundane*’ tasks that are part of repetitive drills that yield improved game skills.”
* “Master the Mundane” is a phrase I picked up when I interviewed Tom Brayshaw, the 1989 New Hampshire Player-of-the-Year and 2117 point career high school scorer.
The action of a game enhances a player’s ability to focus – identifying opportunities and reacting quickly to developing situations on the court or field of play.
This third view of winning, at least the way I see it, also treats losing a bit differently from the way the general public sees it. I tell my teams that they will never lose… if they can learn from every contest where they do not come out on top at the end of the game. I call it “Win or Learn” vs. “Win or Lose” and it is a way of turning every contest, regardless of outcome, into one more step in the process of ultimate winning… becoming the best that you, and your team, can be.
This also makes it easier to adopt an attitude of good sportsmanship since your competitor is not the enemy. They are simply the team or player(s) that are committed to bringing out the best that you have and identifying your weaknesses. It is hard to be mad at someone who is doing their best … to make you better !
Don’t Cheat your players out of a winning mindset !
While it probably doesn’t warrant a 4th view of winning by itself, I often see coaches who settle for “good enough” rather than holding their players and team to a higher standard. A standard that is focused on becoming the best and winning much more often than not.
Maybe coaching is not that important to these coaches. Maybe no one ever taught them what it means to be a winner so they can’t pass those ideas on to their team. I am not blaming them. There are many reasons why it happens and, sadly, many parents or school administrators simply let it continue. As Jim Collins says in his book, “Good to Great”, sometimes “Good is the enemy of Great”. If you are happy with “good enough” it is very easy to stop there and not pursue excellence.
Whatever the reason, coaches who settle for “good enough” are cheating their players out of critical life lessons that the pursuit of winning in sports could provide.
Agree? Disagree?
Oversimplified? Too Complicated?
Too Much? Not enough?
Leave a comment below. The only rule for comments is “Remember The Fonz”… be cool (and respectful).
Next article…
“How do you create an environment for winning?”
Do you want to know the mental framework that I use as the foundation for creating a winning team, even at the middle school level? What gets players motivated to push themselves and perform at their best? I will address these questions in my next article
If you want to be notified when the next article is released, please be sure to sign up for my email list. If there isn’t a signup form on this page, there will be on soon so check back in a day or two.
Let’s build a winning mindset
Let me start off by telling you…
I don’t have all the answers. I have some answers and I ask questions of some very smart and experienced people so that I can find out some clues to the answers, but I am a work-in-process and you should apply your own common sense before you try anything that I might suggest. (Or anything other people suggest.)
What’s so important about “building a winning mindset”?
If you have found this blog, I suspect that you already have an appreciation for the fact that winning starts in your head. Your mindset is made up of many components… values, beliefs, theories, hunches and much more (that I will explore on this blog). Having said that, we are usually our own worst enemy when it comes to achieving our goals, either in life or on the basketball court. Often we know what needs to be done but we don’t do it. Or we could figure out a solution if we would just recognize the problem.
Why is Coach Wheeler writing this blog?
Over the years, I have learned quite a bit about performance psychology and how the mind can be trained to improve your performance. As a basketball coach, I teach my players how they can control their mind to improve their skills as basketball players and, hopefully, they can apply those same lessons beyond the basketball court. If you are reading this blog, my hope is that you can use the basketball stories as examples and then apply the lessons to your own life as well.
Why are there questions before every paragraph?
I find that it makes the articles easier to read … and it helps me organize my thoughts. Does it bother you? Or does it make it easier for you to read the articles? Let me know in the comments section.
Do you have a question that you would like to ask… add that in the comment section too !
What if you have a question that you don’t want to make public? Use the “Contact Form” on my InviteOnlyBasketball.com site or on this site to send me a message.