It's a Mental Game

The saying Goes "The game of basketball is 90% mental and 10% physical." 

You ask " well Moe, what does that mean?".  Basketball has little to do with height, strength, moves and so forth. Its about how quickly you can think, what your thinking about and how you're thinking. Your brain is the strongest muscle in your body. It controls everything that you do. It controls how you feel when you wake up in the morning and it controls your knowledge base and the rest of your body. With out a good mental attitude your game just wont be where you really want it to be.

 For example If someone is guarding you and they are really tough, and intimidating they will usually  " get in your head" telling you your not good enough, taunting you, or just straight igging you out. The moment you think, they are right, you give up mentally and that's when they steal the ball from you and go full court to score. This happens because you allowed someone to tap into your strongest muscle and you there fore lost the battle of mental toughness, no matter if your the fastest , strongest, and " greatest " player on the team. Once you let someone get into your head and negatively affect your game, you have lost. 

You are  your biggest competition and you are the one that determines if you are good enough or not. Of course skills are important, like I said Its a 90-10 difference. But even if you have all those skills, if your not mentally tough,k it just wont matter. 

How do you overcome and be mentally tough at all times? Actually it takes practice. Its not that easy staying positive and thinking powerful good thoughts, but once you get used to it, it will be come a daily habit. You literally have to work on your mental toughness every day if you want to be a great player. I'm not saying just stand in front of a mirror and say i am a great basketball player and no one can beat me, i mean that is a great start but it also comes from educating your self in the game, constantly practicing by your self to improve your confidence and playing with others as well.

 

 I was also told by my coaches that my attitude equals my altitude. I never understood what that meant until I actually put that into affect. I used to play with a very negative attitude. Every basket that I missed i dropped nmy shoulders and was basically angry, not with anyone else but myself. That took me so far out the game that it started to become a big problem in my playing. My coaches would yell Moe! Get your head back in the game. They also told me not to be upset when I missed a basket, but to go get the ball back. Once I started doing those simple things like hustling back on D after a brick , I began to understand that my thoughts therefore created my actions. When I dropped my head and pouted about a missed basket, EVERYONE COULD SEE THIS ACTION!! So of course the opponent grabbed the rebound, went down the court and made a basket at my expense. 

I will never forget the day I decided to have a great attitude and an abundance of mental toughness. This day I let my attitude equal my altitude and I attempted my first in game Dunk. It was anything pretty but I felt so good and so strong and so quick that It took me to a whole another level.

Feel free to ask me any questions , leave comments, and definitelysubscribe to this blog. 

As I said before I'm here to give you my story, my advice and my love for basketball as you girls have. 

I'm excited and cant wait till the next time... keep ballin' girl, the games not over yet! 

Mone't ( but you can call me Moe)

Making the Grade 2.0

This piece Of good and solid advice is very important. I know I don't even have to talk to most of you about this, but If you were like me, and school just wasn't your thing, this advice is definitely for you! 

Young sister's! Stay in school seriously! For most teams all you need is a 2.0 to a 2.5 G.P.A. to stay on the team. Do you know how easy that is? That's just average, all C's and maybe a couple B's. they're not asking for perfection, and believe me, its nothing wrong with it either. I cant tell you how many times I've seen young gifted  basketball players lose their opportunity to have a wonderful collegiate career and possibly professional career because of poor grades.

 You have to motivate yourself. If you have class with some of your teammates ask them for your help if your stuck. No question is a dumb question. The only dumb question is the one that doesn't get asked! You feel me? Anyways I just want to stress the importance of staying focused in school, not just to stay on the team, that's a good motivator, but for you in the long run. Your grades follow you every where and it says something about you. It says this person can follow directions, learn something, and apply it. Its no different than getting graded on the bball court; IE playing time, knowing the play, knowing the rules of the game etc. Its all the same! 

Well I'm going to tell you my little story, its a sad story but it ends in a happy ending. 

I'll be honest with you, I hated school. I didnt hate the teachers or the students, I just didn't like the concept of waking up extra early to sit for 8 hours in a classroom. I didn't understand the importance of keeping my G.P.A. up and how if I didn't do this my future could be shot. During my 10Th grade year I slacked a lot in high school. I skipped some classes, showed up late to others, but made sure I was on time and ready for basketball practice.  I didn't think much of it despite the warnings from teachers and then eventually my coaches. I was stubborn and it didn't stop me from doing what I was doing. 

The thing about being on a basketball team is that , yes, you do get a little love from you teachers. I mean we were able to leave school to go play games and we had a bit of celebrity status getting our face sin major news papers and much more. Well I took all that for granted and continued to skip class and not even show up on some days. I also had some other personal things going on then too, but it wasn't a good enough excuse to miss as many classes as I did. 

Well progress reports went out, and yes your coaches get this report as well as your parents. Sure enough I was called to the Head Coaches office, Coach om Pryor and we had a meeting about my grades and I was given a probationary period to either get it together or I was off the team! I had two weeks to prove that I could get to my classes and stay focused while I was there and between those two weeks, if i could make that effort, my spot on the team was mine.

Well Ladies,  I slipped , I didn't follow up with my part of the deal and two weeks later I was called into the office again. This time my parents were there and all the coaching staff. I was informed to turn in my uniform and to select a P.E. class for the remainder of the year. This killed me! P.E.!! I Haven't had P.E. since Junior High School. People in P.E. , I thought were lazy people who couldn't play a sport if they wanted to! Well that didn't matter to anyone because I had my chance.  I disappointed my family, my coaches, my teammates, my teachers, my school and my self. It wasn't a good feeling. The people that looked to me to make a difference, because everyone on a team is needed and important if they are doing what they need to do, are now looking at me like, "why did you give up on us". It just wasn't fun! 

So my Sophomore year of High School, I was a regular student. No traveling, no Sizzler meals, no practicing with  my team, No new jersey's no new bags, no new shoes, no NADA! This sucked big time! 

This taught me a lesson and I realized that my future depended on every decision I make in my life. Although I didn't wind up being Valedictorian of Gahr High I did finish school and got a chance to play with my teammates for 2 more years after that. I never wanted to feel that feeling of rejection ever again! So please if you want to take your basketball skills to the next level, you have to remember that your education comes first and foremost. If sports or anything get in the way, it can and will be taken from you. 

Ill tell you more of the story tomorrow in the next section... 

Feel free to ask me any questions , leave comments, and definitely subscribe to this blog. 

As I said before I'm here to give you my story, my advice and my love for basketball as you girls have. 

I'm excited and cant wait till the next time... keep ballin' girl, the games not over yet! 

Mone't ( but you can call me Moe)