The Art Of Mental Preparation

Learning to better prepare is something that ANY person can do. The earlier we start learning this concept, the better we will be at it in the future.

This especially applies to athletes. The majority of the season’s results come from the effort that is accumulated in the off-season. Although blood, sweat, and tears from hours of shooting, running sprints, and doing defensive slides is necessary, it is also necessary to apply this same thought process to one of the most important muscles in the body. THE MIND.

Cooking Up Some Brain Power

I consistently emphasize the importance of helping young athletes develop their minds as they are developing their physical skills for basketball. In my opinion, mental fitness is just weird. There is no set time that you HAVE to train your mind to get the best results. There is no perfect formula for developing mental toughness or discipline. Athletes can incorporate mental exercises into almost any aspect of their lives. It’s like figuring out different recipes that you like. You just try adding different things together and see how you like the taste at the end (at least that’s what I do). Thinking outside the box can be the x-factor in taking mental preparation to a whole new level.

For me personally, I have found that something as simple as pushing for an extra 3 reps while I am at the gym (consistently) has helped me to better deal with being tired or feeling pain while I am playing a sport or even doing something like writing (you have no idea how much I want to just veg out on Seinfeld right now!). However, it’s taken me about 6 months to get to this point where I can push through the smaller walls I hit and get my work done. 6 months ago, I had no idea that it would end up translating into something so important though. Mental preparation creates different tools for athletes that may not be of much use to them right now, but eventually they’re going to need that hammer.

This is something that, in the beginning, can be 100% unique to the athlete and their thought process. As your athlete is exposed more and more to being challenged mentally, it will help to stimulate their own internal motivation and that is one of the goals of this concept. Once that internal motivation switch is flipped, that is when the journey starts to head in a different direction.

*I just want to clarify that I understand not all athletes are built the same. Some are motivated more by external than internal influences. However, an athlete that is motivated externally and can also motivate themselves internally, will be more effective in the long run.