THE IMPORTANCE OF FUNDAMENTALS
I’ve had a number of new followers on this blog in recent months, so I want to touch on something I’ve noticed in previous posts…but it’s so important moving forward. I want to acknowledge that there are some points I make that are repetitive from time-to-time. Initially, my thought was to avoid this moving forward, but then I was reminded of my philosophy as a basketball coach.
Even as a head coach over a varsity program, we began our practices every day with ball-handling and basic footwork drills. No matter whether it was the offseason, the beginning of the season in November, or later in the season as we prepared for the state tournament, the practice plan always began with fundamentals. Granted, we devoted less time to the drills as the season moved on, but it was important that we constantly touched on these drills to reinforce muscle memory and improve at the most fundamental level.
I always preached a very simple message: “you play how you practice.” If you practice with bad fundamentals, you’ll no doubt resort to those poor fundamentals when under pressure. Game situations require a person to react quickly, and by practicing good fundamentals over and over, it is more likely that in a critical moment, a solid fundamental player will react instinctively making a better decision while a player with poor fundamentals is more likely to make a bad decision (i.e., a bad pass, a bad shot, a turnover).
Think about that for a moment because it has far-reaching application here. The actions and decisions you reinforce on an hourly or daily basis will be what you turn to in game situations. When you find yourself up against an opponent in a pressure situation, you will do what is most natural to you; what is most comfortable to you; what you’ve practiced (mentally and physically rehearsed) over and over, regardless of whether it is the best response or not.
Wait! Are we talking about sports here?
THIS IS NOT A GAME, THIS IS LIFE
This message is not at all about sports, this is life. In fact, I bring this point up constantly with clients on my caseload. The mindsets they reinforce about themselves and their circumstances on a daily basis will most likely influence the path they travel when they feel the pressure.
- An addict feeling the stress of their legal, financial, or relationship circumstances… they’re more likely to relapse even when they don’t want to.
- A person who turns to food when feeling unpleasant emotions… I personally know the wonderful cycle that leads into…
- The workaholic; the Shopaholic; the “fill-in-the-blank-aholic”: is anything with -aholic at the end going to turn out well?
- A negative thinking mindset faced with significant barriers…more likely to give up quickly or make a poor decision based on their mindset.
- The person who checks out emotionally (binge-watching TV, computer games, mindless scrolling on social media, etc.) when facing pressure…
My belief is that when faced with pressure, we turn to the act or mindset we’ve regularly reinforced. Therefore, I cannot emphasize enough just how important it is that we breakdown the decisions we make to their most fundamental level.
- What emotions are driving us in those moments?
- What words and thoughts are we rehearsing in those moments? Are we stewing in anger about how we want to respond; are we belittling ourselves?
- What perspective are we embracing in those moments? Are we feeling hope or hopeless?
SO…
This is a quick post, but as I post in the future, if you hear similar messages from time-to-time, please give me grace and understand that it may just be this is a part of the practice plan…we must get recalibrated to the good fundamentals every day to increase our chances for successful outcomes.
Oh…and by the way, I never knew a player who was excited about the fundamental drills…but I assure you, the locker room and the bus rides home were always noisy and festive when the guys played well.
Maybe someone out there needed to hear that one.