Bring Back the Fun…

Bring Back the Fun…

There has been a growing concern in my heart about the state of youth competitive basketball for some time now.  Remember how much fun it used to be when you first started playing?  Where did the fun go?  A 1992 study of 8,000 youth athletes found that having fun was their primary reason for participating in a sport.[1]  This is true today as well.  However, far too often, the primary reason a young athlete started playing a sport in the first place begins to slowly fade.  In some cases, the fun factor of a sport will take a backseat to other factors such as getting a college scholarship, winning, pleasing parents or coaches, etc.  The list can go on and on.   In the worst cases, the fun factor of sport is replaced by stress inducing factors that eliminate the fun altogether.  How can we prevent this from occurring?  How can we keep the fun in the games we love?

1. Identify the Problem

We live in culture of instant gratification- Instant coffee, instant news to our phones, Instagram, fast food.  We want success and we want it NOW!  Our view of mistakes or failure has been warped to the point that we view them as worst case scenarios.  This could not be further from the truth.  The problem lies in our mindset.

In Carol Dweck’s book Mindset, She shares a story about children trying to do difficult puzzles.  When confronted with the puzzles the children were excited, asked questions, and attacked them with an eager ferocity that had no fear of possible failure.  She states, “Not only weren’t they discouraged by failure, they didn’t even think they were failing.  They thought they were learning.”[2]  When do we go from the learning, growing, fearless mind of a child to the arrived, fixed, fearful mind of an adult?  We do not have to view success and failure the way ESPN does with professional athletes.  ESPN does not care about a professional athlete’s growth as a person.  They care about the story right now.  Fortunately, our failures are not going to be on ESPN.  So what’s the big deal?  Who are we trying to impress?  Are we more concerned with our ego or our growth?  The most successful people have a growth mindset that does not fear failure.  They do not fear because they see opportunity in disappointment.  Take this Michael Jordan ad by Nike for example:

Athletes-  Do not fear failure.  Do not fear mistakes.  They are opportunities to learn and get better.  If you truly grasp this concept, you will feel a weight has been lifted off your shoulders.  Just let go.  It will be so liberating.

Coaches and parents-  Let your kids fail.  Do not shield them from it.  It is the only way they learn how to respond to their mistakes and understand that, contrary to popular belief, failure can be the best teacher.  A growth mindset will be the most valuable tool they carry with them into their adult life.

2. Can’t Shoot= No Fun. Confusing Capability with Mastery

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”  -Bruce Lee

Making shots in games is arguably the most fun thing you can do on the basketball court.  The crowd erupts, and the adrenaline pumps through a player’s veins. The feeling is amazing.  So players, do you want to have more fun playing basketball?  Make more shots. Notice I did not say “Take more shots.”  You have to be able to make a high percentage to be allowed to take a decent amount of shots without getting a warm seat on the bench.  One of the most common mistakes that athletes make is confusing capability with mastery.  Just because a seventh grader can make a three point shot does not mean that he is a good shooter.  I know this idea seems obvious, but it is amazing how many basketball players shoot three after three in games before they have put in the time necessary to become a decent three point shooter.  Just go to a high school game and watch the amount of three point shots get hoisted towards the basket.

So, what does it take to achieve some level of mastery at a certain skill?  The clear answer is practice and repetition.  There is a stark contrast between real, focused work on your game and just being in the gym getting up shots or playing.  A serious player actively striving toward mastery is focused on correct fundamentals, the consistency of their practice sessions, and pushing themselves to the point of uncomfortable growth.  As a player puts up more quality, game-like shots on their own, they will gain more confidence because of their ever increasing ability to make shots in games.   And making shots in games will exponentially increase the fun factor of basketball.  As you rain 3’s, the fun will rain down on you.  Better bring an umbrella.  Make more shots= Have more fun.

* I will have more detailed content about the process of becoming a great shooter as well as detailed plans of action coming soon in the locker room.

 3. “Comparison is the thief of all joy” -Theodore Roosevelt

A 1993 psychology essay by scholar K. Anders Ericsson stated that 10,000 hours of practice makes one a master of any particular skill.  Many scientists, however, have always been skeptical.  How can such a specific number exist when there are many factors that could contribute to variance of different individual’s skill development.  According a recent study[3]  by a group of psychologists from five universities, only one third of the variation in performance levels by chess players and musicians can be explained by deliberate practice “leaving the majority of the reliable variance unexplained or explained by different factors.”  The study reanalyzed six previous studies of chess competitions and eight studies of musicians and found great disparities in the amount of time the chess grandmasters and elite musicians practiced.  For example one specific chess master had taken 26 years to reach a level that another had reached in just 2 years.  In other words, practice is great, but just because you practice the piano for four hours per day, does not mean you will be Elton John.  Other determining factors could be personality, age which you started, intelligence, innate ability, or something else entirely.  It’s not that a player cannot acquire and possibly master a skill such as shooting the three point shot.  However, if you practice as much as Steph Curry, you will still not rival Steph in three point shooting prowess.  Not all basketball players are created equal.  Some have to work much harder than others to achieve their desired level of success.

What takes joy out of the game for some players is the fact that they never come to grips with this concept.  They put in work.  They simply are not athletically built like Russell Westbrook, or they do not have the natural innate ability of Steph Curry.  That is okay.  You have to be comfortable with you.  At times, parents tend to take the fun out of the game for their child and the coach.  I once coached a player who had a father who was adamant that he was the best player on the team.  Dad wanted Johnny to be getting the same amount of shots as Bobby, our team’s first team all-state performer.  He would say things to me like, “Johnny was in the gym just as much as Bobby.” “You are holding him back.”  “You only care about the stars.”  There was not much explaining that I could do.  I would just tell him we are not going to talk about strategy or Bobby.  We can talk about how Johnny can get better.  He did not have any interest in talking about that.  The most difficult part of the situation was that Johnny was most likely forced to listen to this nonsense the entire ride home from every game.  Look at this from Johnny’s viewpoint.  How is Johnny ever going to be comfortable in his own skin?  Johnny knows deep down that no matter what he does he won’t pass up Bobby’s skill level.  They have worked out together, played together, and put up the close to the same amount of shots.  Bobby is just better.  How can we expect him to work hard to be the best version of himself when he knows his father won’t be happy until he starts getting Bobby’s shots and accolades?   Johnny is good, but not good enough for dad.  The pressure to perform becomes intense and in turn the fun is drained out of the game for Johnny.  All he wants to do is enjoy playing and make his father proud.   Parents- Please! I am begging you for the sake of the game and the sake of your own kid.  Stop the comparison game.  Enjoy what your kid can do.  Cherish the moments that you get to watch them play.  If they feel performance pressure from you, 9 times out of 10 they will not be able to perform at a peak level.

Players- Please! Stop comparing yourselves.  It’s not you against them.  It’s you against you.  You compare yourselves to players around you.  You are constantly bombarded with rankings, message boards, and social media telling you who is better and where you stand.  I realize that it is very difficult for players to not get discouraged at times.  You can use some of it for motivation, but, most of the time, it can be pretty deflating.  Players, you must understand that none of that stuff matters.  The only thing that matters is becoming as good as you can possibly be.  Let me ask you this, what is your end game? To be ranked ahead of someone else?  If so, you are putting a ceiling on your own game.   If your sole focus in life is a relentless, unwavering pursuit of the best version of yourself, no one else will matter, and great things in LIFE will pursue you.   Drop the comparison game.  Basketball will be more fun.

 

4. The Next Level Trap

A big reason why so many of today’s high school basketball players play the game is to get a college scholarship.  Even more parents think that their child is on the fast track to getting a scholarship.  The main problem with a scholarship being in the forefront of your mind is that it makes it impossible for you to be the best teammate you can be.  Simply put, you have an agenda.  That agenda is you furthering your career.  You want to be seen.  Your innermost desire is to be recruited resulting in the fact that you are playing for yourself even if only subconsciously.   You may not notice it.  Coach may not even notice it, but you cannot be the best high school player you can be if your main goal is anything other than getting better every day and giving yourself completely to the team.  Not only that, when do we expect a mindset like this to stop?  It is human nature to want more.  The freshman player just wants to make varsity.  The varsity player just wants to play college basketball.  Okay.  Let’s say he works hard and things happen to work out for him to land a junior college spot.  Now he just wants to get a D1 scholarship.  Would he rather win a JUCO national championship or get a D1 scholarship.  In most cases, the latter will be true.  You may think that once a player is playing college basketball they drop any agenda and completely give themselves to the team and their coaches.  Think again!

I was asked to speak to an NCAA Division II team last year.  This team was full of delusion and battling turmoil in the locker room.  The coach reached out to me for help.  He wanted me to give them objective insight on what it takes to be truly part of a TEAM.  I looked all the guys in the eyes and asked them why they played basketball.  The majority of them said to get a job playing overseas or possibly get drafted.  This was a Division II team!  I could not believe what I was hearing.  Their team chemistry problems suddenly made complete sense to me.  It is no wonder that they had such a cancerous locker room environment.  Half of the team is playing for their own agenda.  When does it stop?  Look, don’t get me wrong, I am all for ambition.  But there is no place for agenda driven ambition in team sports.  Misery will follow.  Drop your agenda and focus on getting better every day.  That is literally all that you can do.   All other focus is nothing more than a waste of time and energy that taps all of the fun out of this beautiful game.

The simple fact of the matter is the odds of getting a college scholarship are not in your favor.  Look, I am not trying to be a downer.  You may say, “but Josh I am different.  I have ability and work harder than anyone I know.”  I thought the same thing.  I once had a coach tell me to stop working on my game so much because he thought I was hurting myself.  During my career, I shot over 100,000 shots per offseason on my own since I was in the eighth grade.  I was determined to be the best player I could possibly be.  I ended up having a great high school career.  Took a small school to the state championship where we got to play on the biggest stage in the state my junior year.  My senior year I was first team all-state as well as one of three finalists for the coveted Mr. Basketball Award given to the best player in the state.  I felt as if my work was paying off, and I was justified in feeling that way.  I got so much enjoyment out of my high school career and I would not trade the experience for anything.  I could look in the mirror and truly believe that I had maxed out my ability as a high school player, and I took a great deal of pride in that.  The payoff was did not come in the form of college offers by the dozens.  The true payoff was in knowing that I did all I could do and had an immense amount of fun doing it.

The thing is, ability doesn’t always equal opportunity.  Some things are just out of your control.  The college coaches could not get past my 5’9” 150 lb. frame.  I had 1 offer.  1.   That offer was from a tiny college in Tennessee where my father just so happened to get the head coaching job after my senior year of high school.  Had my dad not gotten that job, odds are I would have had to try to walk on somewhere and prove myself.  I know what you are thinking-  “You probably were not as good as I am.”  Well, I may not have been as good as you are, but after breaking our schools assist record, scoring over 2000 points, being a part of 95 wins in 4 years, leading our team to a National Championship in 2003, and dropping 25+ in 3 of the 4 games we played against Division 1 opponents, I felt pretty confident in my ability to compete at the college level.  It is extremely difficult to get a college basketball scholarship.  There is also a certain amount of luck involved.  Look at some numbers put together by Pro Shot Shooting Systems.

• There are currently 351 Division 1 teams that each offer 13 scholarships a year.
• On average, that means there are 1141 available new scholarships each year.
• However, 30% of Junior College/Prep School players take those scholarships (342 total) that leaves us with 800.
• Additionally, 10% of all scholarships go to overseas players which means we need to take off another 114.
• That leaves us with 686 players that Division 1 schools can sign directly out of High School in the US.
• There are 38,400 public and private high schools in the US that offer a basketball program.
• On average, there are 4 seniors that play for each varsity team.
• There are 154,600 High School Seniors, give or take, trying to get 686 scholarships.
• 4%. Yes, as an American High School Senior you have a 0.4% chance of getting an NCAA Division 1 scholarship.
• Half of these scholarships will go to players 6’5″ or taller. So if you’re under 6’5″, reduce your chances to about 0.2%.

Trust me, I am not trying to stress you out.  Quite the contrary.  My desire is for you to let go of your worry about getting a college scholarship.  You cannot control that.  The source of joy in sports cannot be emphasized enough.  You must strive to be the best version of yourself possible.  That is the only way to have the most fun playing this game.

 

Final Thoughts:

After watching UNC’s Marcus Paige in the postgame press conference after this year’s national championship, I remembered.  It seems like such a long time ago, but I remembered how much fun I had playing basketball.  Sure, I made some mistakes in the mindset department at times.  I stressed out too.  Looking back I see that the stress about the things that were outside of my control was an epic waste of time.  When I look at the best performances of my career, they all had one thing in common.  They were totally free of stress and performed with a liberating looseness that can only come from playing in the moment for the sheer fun of it.  I remember with vivid clarity times during big games where I would look at the scoreboard with 4 minutes left and think to myself,  “What?  It’s almost over?  I have been looking forward to this all week!”  I did not see the score.  I did not care.  I just wanted to play more.  I wanted to hear that crowd roar again after a made three.  Why?  Because it was so much fun.  Then, just like that, it was all over.  I remember the feeling after we won the national championship.  We cut down the nets.  We won the last game I would ever play, yet I was devastated.  I would never play in a game again.  I would never have another big second half.  I sat down in the shower of the locker room and sobbed like a baby.  I did not want to take off the jersey.  The jersey I was so proud of.  The jersey I had worn for as long as I could remember.  To this day, I still think about how great it would be to have one more chance to play in a basketball game.   Why?  For Glory?  For a chance to play at the next level?  To prove something?  Not even close.  FOR FUN.  That is the only reason why I wish I could play in one more game.  Pure hearted basketball is played for one reason and one reason only- because a basketball player simply loves to play the game.  Forget the other reasons.  Watch the pressure of the moment fall away.  It will be incredibly liberating.

Bring back the Fun.

-Josh T

 

Resources:

[1] Seefeldt V, Ewing M, Walk S. Overview of Youth Sports Programs in the United States. Washington, DC: Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development; 1992.

[2] Carol Dweck, Mindset: The Psychology of Success, Ballantine Books, 2006, p. 4.

[3] Intelligence, Volume 45 July-August 2014 pages 112-114   Acquiring Expertise: Ability, Practice, and Other Influences