A Final Letter to All Players

Hello All,

I hope everyone has been enjoying all the action in the State Basketball League in recent weeks, the quality of games and level of competition has been fantastic. It is exciting to me that we have an All-Star game this coming Monday and I can’t wait to check it out. Matt Cecins and I will hopefully have a bit of a combined blog on it over the weekend before the event.

In the meantime I thought I would complete the last part of my letter to players. Five items left, they are a bit of a mix of topics but apply to how you think and feel. A great skill for an athlete is the ability to assess the situation and focus them in a way that is most productive.

This can apply to your role in the team: Ever played with someone who is an irrational confidence person and doesn’t understand where they fit, or how to work their way up?

Emotions within games: Ever played with someone who can’t control their intensity and is easily distracted by opposition players, fans and referees?

Off the basketball court: How do you manage your day-to-day activities? This can be as simple as a new job, hobby or relationship that challenges a player's ability to order priorities and manage time which can cause performances to diminish.

The last five:

Have a Shared Vision

Know the coaches grand picture. A good coach will be able to close their eyes and visualise their team playing “ideal basketball”. They can see the team going up and down, offence and defence, how they move, what spots each player gets to and the decisions they make from them. They will also have a vision for you, what spots in the offence you should play, when you should shoot, drive or pass to a teammate, what a match-up would look like for you in defence and when you should help, rotate, pressure, box-out, etc.

My question to you is; if you were to close your eyes and imagine the team playing “ideal basketball,” how would you be contributing to this? Then assess how closely you think your vision will align with that of your coach. If you aren’t confident it’s similar, you need to figure out where you fit quickly.

I’ll tell you a secret, when you come into a game and make decisions the coach doesn’t see for you, you are damaging your opportunities irrespective of if they are successful or not in that instance. You might sub in and score a rapid fire 8 points in trash time, or you may go for 20 to 30 every week in D-League, but a good coach is always transposing a quality game against a good team on top of how he is seeing you play in that moment, and if it doesn’t fit in with that vision then all your work is for nothing.

Make Strengths Contagious

Have a look around you at the other players in your squad (especially the stronger ones) and assess what makes them good, why they are successful, what their strengths are and then emulate them. There is a level of self-awareness that is required to do this because you have to be realistic with your own short comings.

Maybe one player is physically very fit, so talk to them and learn what their program is. Maybe one player shoots the ball well, talk to them and learn what their routine is. Don’t be too shy to talk to these people

 

and even pair yourself up and get in the extra work with them, see up close how good you really need to be. Compare temperaments, for example, one player could be great at making their team mates feel positive and confident, while another teammate who isn’t as good in this area may be very driven, intense and can hold people accountable. See if you can pick the best out of both.

This can also apply to within trainings and games. Surround yourself with people who are going to bring out the best of you. Don’t go to training and talk to just your mates or partner off with them at every opportunity. There may even be someone whom you get along really well with, but makes it disruptive at training sessions so stay away from them. Trust me, there aren’t many things that annoy a coach more than this and it shows immaturity. Coaches can also see if you are always cruising against the weaker players in the group rather than making yourself better against strong competition.

Be Mentally and Emotionally Balanced

I’ve put this one here because our level of motivation is always linked to our mental / emotional state. I have seen players burn out, lose interest or fluctuate massively in commitment because they can’t always keep things balanced.

Imagine a graph and on it we have two flat lines that are our ideal levels mentally and emotionally. Some people are very level, they keep things under control, can work consistently and don’t deviate to far above or below the optimum spot.

Then there are those of us who have peaks or troughs that are away from our best spot. Both of these are equally dangerous, those of us who allow ourselves to peak too quickly or get carried away with some good performances can get caught up in our own press and lose the routines and habits that put them in such a good position. Then the reality check and recalibration of expectations has to occur. Then there are those players who are prone to troughs, to feeling frustrated in performance or disappointed in their lack of progress. These are the people who worry me the most because they can be prone to burn-out or losing their enjoyment of the game.

For those people who are level, congratulations, and I’m jealous because I was never really able to be. For those of us who are prone to emotional highs or lows then you must balance it, so if you’re the kind of person to get mad at yourself for a mistake on court then you must learn to enjoy the moments when things work as planned. If you’re the kind of person to get excited when things are going well individually or as a team then you need to learn awareness of improvement and focus areas even in the good times.

My advice is to find someone who understands you and you trust, it helps if they know basketball but isn’t compulsory. Use them to talk and share with, to play devil’s advocate or give you a pump up when required.

The last part of emotional balance is how you cope in a team context, particularly when things aren’t going your way. I have the theory that if someone is going to let you down then they will do it at the moment when the stakes are the highest. This is only logical because the stress and anxiety is the greatest. If you aren’t a tried and proven player in your team context, if you haven’t built a relationship with your coach already, then it is super important that you prove you can keep focus on the right things. Particularly don’t lose your temper, don’t get distracted with referees, opponents, or even teammates at the wrong times.

Manage Your Lifestyle

Managing your lifestyle can be just as important to influencing your performance as the number of sessions you complete. If you are eating poorly, drinking too frequently, following a poor sleeping pattern, or taking short cuts anywhere with your general health it will catch up with you. Even something as simple as supplements, there will always be a lag between the change in the behaviour and your drop in performance but it will inevitably happen.

This is also a big factor in WSBL / SBL as players make the jump from juniors to seniors. Some of the things that parents once regulated are now left for young adults. For example, relationships start which can mean living out of multiple residences. There are unlimited examples but they all combine to wear you down. Always remember that if you eat poorly it is metabolically impossible to fix this the next day, think of it like each day you start from scratch. The body can recover sleep a little better but it takes days, it isn’t just a case of going to bed early-ish the night before a game if the rest of the week has been a mess.

There Isn’t 480 Minutes

There is only 240 minutes in men’s and 200 minutes to be shared in a women’s SBL game. Some coaches are responsible when it comes to recruiting for next season and some hunt for players like a hungry hippo goes for marbles. You should be aware of what category your coach or the club falls into by past behaviours.

You need to be realistic when you commit; write down some lists of names, who is signed, who hasn’t, who’s likely or what the rumours are, best and worst case scenarios for you, and competition for the same playing position. If any of these lists make you really uncomfortable then don’t sign the contract (and once you do be an adult and honour it. On the flip side if a club isn’t honouring their commitment don’t be shy to speak up and get what was agreed in the terms).

It never fails to amaze me that players can’t do this, it doesn’t matter what the coach recruiting you says, there is a finite number of minutes and you won’t magically metamorphasize into a different person by mid-March. Use your brain; take responsibility for determining who you will be playing alongside and how the court time maths computes.

If you don’t do your due diligence you have no right to be complaining or asking questions once the season commences.

So that’s it, most definitely not the complete list because there is always more but some of my major tips and advice to players on where they can get more out of themselves. I touched on this on the radio show and the feedback has been fantastic. I’ve had coaches forward it on in their networks and many tell me they have passed it onto their teams to read. Some have kept it for the future and even one asked me for a summary for a playbook.

The feedback that made me the most gratified was an email I received late last week from a former player. It was part of a very challenging season for me as coach, the club and the players. Going into the season we had always had a great relationship but it was very strained afterwards. I haven’t included anything that explicitly reveals who the player is but here is four extracts:

“Look I just wanted to say I have really enjoyed your letters so far. I think they really do drive home a few points. I wish I had of read something similar to this in my younger days, I think I can put my hand up to being guilty to a few of these bad behaviours at one point or another in my career.

 

To be honest the only thing I can proudly say that I have done, if not exceeded with, from your posts is the work away from training. I always prided myself on the extra work I put in and I actually took it as a personal insult that others were not doing the same. It wasn't until a couple of years ago I came the realisation that not everyone was as passionate as I am.

I am going to be looking into coaching in the next few years and I am going to have these letters ready for every player that makes my squad when I get there. I think you have nailed exactly what needs to be said and I hope that it is ok that I do that.”

“I wanted to say these letters have given me a great insight into why I may not have reached my full potential at the SBL level. In roughly the last 3 years I have reflected on my basketball career and really started to look inwardly as to why I did not make it as far as I thought my talent should have.

I never really blamed anyone else specifically, but I was a bit of a fan of believing that circumstance played a big role. This is the case in some instances, but over all I really needed to look at what I did or could have done differently to succeed. So reading your letters have helped immensely recently in figuring out a few of these things.”

“I have always respected you as a coach. You know your stuff, you deliver it well and have a very specific plan for every game. I am aware this may not have seemed the case when I played for you but it is the truth.

I know I have mentioned it in the past, but our time together was a massive screw up on my side and I allowed myself to be influenced wrongly.

So I offer my apologies for that again.”

“Anyhow, keep up the great work, I look forward to part 3 and I hope that when I pass this all on to whatever team I coach, they will see what it is you really are trying to do for them and they receive it well.

If I can help with anything you are writing about in your 3rd part please let me know. I am happy to be an example of the things you should NOT do to succeed.”

The letter also covers a few of the challenges and situations we dealt with during that season, but I have chosen not to include anything that reveals who it is, even though they approved me to do so if I wanted. I took some time to respond to this email, I truly didn’t believe an apology was necessary anymore but the communication was great for me and I hope my response helped them.

What I am trying to show you by this letter is team sport is a shared experience; there will be times when your goals don’t sync up with those of the coach, team or just the situation. Most (not all) coaches are very invested in each of their players and share in this disappointment. That was always the hardest part of the role for me, no matter what impression I may have given outsiders making decisions that upset or disappointed other members of the team was very tough. Family, friends and other coaches I’m close with will know this and have often provided me with advice. That’s why the letter was so appreciated and had such a big impact on me.

How many of you are aware that you have the ability to affect your coaches and teammates like that? Each and every moment we are around the team and each other we have an opportunity to make the experience productive, positive and enjoyable for each other and continue to build the community. Productive and positive doesn’t always mean happy, enjoyable doesn’t always mean fun, and we all experience situations we need to handle better - especially in the heat of competition. I’ve certainly had my fair share of them.

I hope everyone has enjoyed the read and is looking forward to a massive weekend of basketball and some entertaining All-Star games.

Regards,

Craig Mansfield

craigmansfield@me.com

Follow me on Twitter @CMansfield34

SBL Slam’: Airing Monday Evenings 9-10 pm on 98five Sonshine FM

http://www.98five.com/shows/other-shows/sblslam/

Photo by Mick Cronin




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