A lockout is a trying period in the career of any basketball professional. Administrators and officials seem to be the ones solely in charge of the state of the game for an extended period of time, and a player can only sit back and wait for them to resolve their issues. A lockout can have debilitating effects on the mental side of basketball for a player. If he has no idea about how to bounce back from a lockout, there is no limit to the depths his game can sink; especially as in basketball mental toughness is an unavoidable prerequisite.
Seeking qualified sports psychology coach is a logical first step for any basketball player wanting to know how to bounce back from a lockout. In a lockout, a basketball player is completely cut off from his training facilities, trainers and staff in general. This is because his team and his representative union are at loggerheads over monetary issues such as revenue sharing and salary caps. It can be a terrible blow to a budding career, or even a fading one, as time is always of the essence in a basketball player’s life. Short sighted approaches oriented towards money can often ignore the fact that basketball player’s career can last only about a couple of decades (which is an exceedingly optimistic estimate in itself). Losing an entire half of a season (if not more) can be devastating, to the mental game of basketball as well and the physical game.
Playing no top flight matches for a long stretch can pose significant challenges to the physical condition of a player, and affect his mental side even more. A player cannot have a sudden vacuum of sorts in the middle of his career, over no conceivable reason other than money. Every player needs to feel wanted by his team owners, and it can be harmful to a player’s basketball psychology to see his employers fighting to slash his salary drastically, and imposing a lockout on not getting their way. As players needs a special sort of focus, whether it is in a skillful play, or for perceptive movement during a game, or for just zoning in on the hoop at the crucial part of actually scoring points. In basketball mental toughness it is paramount, and if it gets compromised, there is simply no way that a basketball player will be able to perform on the court.
Experts in sports psychology for basketball can help the athlete to come to terms with the fact that his career was a mere sideline story while officials were fighting it out for a larger piece in the pie. One of the recourses for the players, which many took advantage of, was keeping himself in prime condition during the lockout, and not let it become a period of extended inactivity, either physically or mentally. Concentration, motivation and trust need to be revisited in-depth in order the basketball player to resume playing as well as he ever have, if not better.
