Basketball Motivation
Basketball Motivation Techniques
Some great players and coaches rely as much on basketball motivation techniques as they do on talent, skill, and experience. While an individual may have all the makings of a great basketball player, unless he or she does not have the team spirit, the team as a whole may not profit from that talent. How often do we see a team, made up of very talented individual players, get beat by a team that may not be as good "on paper" but are simply fired up, playing like a team, and determined to win? It happens all the time.
We see athletes quite often who are consumed with their own statistics, or try to carry the whole team on their shoulders. Sometimes that can happen, but usually not. But when it comes to true basketball motivation, if you have a team with one great player, and the rest merely average, if they are motivated to play as a team, they'll be winners. More importantly, even when they lose a game, they'll still be winners.
Basketball has its share of players, at all levels, who seem incapable of thinking beyond their own little world, but if you look at the greats of the game, players and coaches alike, almost all of them put their team first, and almost all of them could give a great basketball motivation speech if called upon to do so.
There are various basketball motivation tools one can employ to help a team or an individual player, but most of them are directed in getting the players to believe in themselves. What is called "imagineering" in some circles, can be a powerful motivational tool. Get someone to imagine being successful long enough or often enough, and soon that person, or that team, will begin to believe they can do most anything. As the saying goes, "perception becomes reality". Imagining over and over a situation in which you are hitting a 3-pointer can be a powerful tool. Imagining once that you can't make the shot can accomplish just the opposite.
Not all of the better known basketball motivation ideas or quotes come from basketball players or coaches, as learning from life is often part and parcel of learning how to play a game. Consider the value of preparation. Abraham Lincoln said "If I was given eight hours to chop down a tree. I would spend seven hours sharpening my ax". An anonymous saying says much the same, though differently: "It's not the hours you put in, it's what you put in the hours."
As far as playing the game itself, basket motivation more often than not centers about giving your all. "It takes no talent to hustle" has to be many a coach's favorite expression, especially when the team seems to be standing around, and as far as playing to win is concerned, one only has to take the advice of General George Patton who remarked, "There is no such thing as a successful defense." A good coach will of course stress good defense as well as good offense, but Patton was talking about a driving will to win, and not so much about how to get there.
Basketball motivation can be a complex thing however. Getting inside a player's mind and getting inside a team's collective mind is not only difficult, but is something that has to be continually worked at. Not all players are willing to sacrifice their personal statistics for the good of the team, and not all teams are quite ready to believe in themselves. Some individuals play for the crowd, not the team. As one coach put it, "If I catch you playing for the grandstand, you'll soon be sitting there." Now there's basketball motivation.