BREAK & CREATE

What follows is a story that was inspired by a recent open gym time we held for the high school players who aren’t involved in spring sports.   I’ll forever be a coach…always identifying patterns, always challenging, trying to inspire and motivate.  However, I’m also that player who needs to learn how to play to my strengths while addressing my weaknesses.  I’m flawed, I have a “game” that needs to improve if I am to compete in the arenas of life that I want to play in.  What I share here begins with me.  I’ve identified patterns that need to be broken, I’ve identified patterns that need to be established…it’s early in the 1^st quarter on some of these changes in my life.  So, I speak to me first…and I hope that as you read this, it will lead you to critically evaluate patterns (habits and thinking patterns) that have lead to less than optimal outcomes in your own life. 

HERE WE GO

I tend to be a person who sees patterns in others and then, knowing I have so much to learn in my own life, I wonder how the principals surrounding those patterns apply to me personally.  It’s easy to operate in this life with “blind spots” where, like in driving, an obstacle, a thinking pattern, or a bad habit can be right next to you and you just don’t see it.  As in driving, it’s not safe to allow blind spots to remain in our life because at some point, they can lead to accidents.

As I returned to coaching last year after being away for over 10 years, I was quickly reminded that many kids think they’ve got a great jump shot if they hit one or two shots from long range

…with no one guarding them

…in practice

…or in their driveway or the park

…when there is no pressure on them.

So, these kids begin to think they’ve got a skill set that in reality, does not translate to game (or real life) situations.  Either they never actually take that long shot in a game, or if they do, there’s added pressure from a defender and from the game situation itself.   

BREAKING BAD HABITS

In a recent open gym, we attempted to focus on the mechanics of a good jump shot; elbow in, elevating in the air (after all…it’s called a jump shot), shoulders square to the basket, ball rolling off the fingers creating a back spin, off-hand doing nothing more than positioning the ball in the shooting hand, follow through with the wrist creating the “gooseneck” form…then holding the gooseneck as the shot is released.  

I know…basketball geek stuff here, but there’s a larger point coming that goes beyond the basketball court.

As we tried to convince the boys to focus on the mechanics and not the results of the shot, there’s no doubt it was uncomfortable, and if the result was a missed shot, the young players had to fight to keep from returning to what was familiar to them…even if what felt comfortable had poor to terrible mechanics. 

After moving to another drill which involved speeding things up or adding more complex movements such as dribbling left or right before taking the jump shot, the boys completely abandoned the form we were teaching and went back to old ways…bad patterns. 

THIS IS WHERE WE MOVE OFF THE BASKETBALL COURT

This past Saturday morning as I sat quietly reflecting, the image of a player came into my mind.  He snaps his wrist as he releases the ball and probably hits 2 or 3 out of 10 shots from anywhere beyond 10 feet from the basket… probably less in game situations.   I’ll add at this point that this particular player is not the only one who needs intervention on his jump shot…but the image of that “snap” on his release resonated with me that Saturday morning.

As I thought about that ugly shooting form, I began thinking about patterns within my life.

Rhetorical question here: how many times have you slowed things down in your life and made a plan for changing bad habits or destructive thinking patterns only to abandon those plans when the tempo of life applied pressure to you?  Demands at work, demands at home, lists, lists, lists…todo’s, todo’s, todo’s…  Suddenly, we are no longer dictating the tempo of our life but the circumstances surrounding us are dictating that tempo, and it’s one that is to our opponent’s liking…not to ours.  We’ve abandoned our game plan and are just trying to survive until the next TV timeout so we can attempt to gather our thoughts.  Before we know it, we’re back in our “poor mechanics” because even though the results are not acceptable to us, it helps us feel more comfortable in the chaos. 

REINFORCING MUSCLE-MEMORY

Every repetition we take in practice either reinforces poor mechanics or it establishes and reinforces proper mechanics…solid fundamentals.  Every time…without exception.  Every time a player gets a ball in their hands and they face the basket, they have a decision to make; they either think through the changes they want to make step by step…focusing on the details, or they mindlessly do what comes natural to them over the years and take that shot, reinforcing bad mechanics. 

Obviously, my focus here is on those thinking patterns or habits we despise and wish to be different within our lives.  Every day, every hour, every moment, we have opportunities to do things the old way, or create a new way; we can operate in old patterns and get the same outcomes, or we can create the changes necessary and operate in proper fundamentals.

As the stakes become higher and we’re no longer simply talking about “little things” we want to change, the battle becomes fierce, and the outcomes can be as extreme as the old Wide World of Sports slogan… “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat”. 

Take addiction as an example, you’re either winning by living a life of sobriety or you’re in relapse with periods of white-knuckling until the next relapse. 

What about food issues?  I’m raising my hand here because I’ve had a destructive relationship with food for over three decades.   Even now as I enjoy some modest victories, I’m mindful of being stuck in a poor mindset the past 4 months with old patterns slowly trickling back in.    

The “game” doesn’t end.  We either operate from a position of victory while being mindful of those old triggers and patterns, or we relax and let down our guard, eventually become blindsided by our old nemesis and wonder “what happened?” 

ONE DEGREE

I know this concept gets old as I’ve written about it several times, but I can’t emphasize the importance of the little things that knock us off course.  As a probation officer, I experienced countless conversations with people who experienced significant setbacks…and as a Coach, to break it down for them, most often it began with many little “one-degrees” that were never put in check.  We want to focus on the big-ticket issues in our life, but we blow right over all those little One-Degrees that add up to make the big issues.   Those One-Degrees seem so unworthy of our attention, they’re no big deal, they can be easily avoided right? 

Well, like I’ve said in previous posts, a pilot will tell you that if you fly one-degree off course and fail to make the necessary corrections, you will miss your intended target by 92 feet per mile traveled.  Consider each week of your life being the equivalent to one mile traveled…if you have one little issue, one flawed view of yourself that never becomes confronted, what kind of outcome can that create over your lifetime? 

BREAK & CREATE

In my first year back in coaching, I have tried to preach the “little things” with the players because they are so necessary in the formation of a ballplayer.  Old habits must be broken, and for us as coaches to allow those old patterns to continue to be practiced is to allow a player to reinforce poor fundamentals.  Every drill, every shot…it’s an opportunity to break and create. 

It’s no different off the Court.  Every circumstance we come across is an opportunity to break and create. 

With that, I will return to my own changes.  I like where things are going, I enjoy the sweet experience of feeling victory where I felt nothing but defeat for decades…but I also need to be attentive to the details ‘cuz this thing is far from over.