Do winners really have a winning edge, a winner’s mind? None other than Kobe Bryant, the famous basketball champion exemplifies it better especially if one is talking about basketball. He is well known for his basketball mental toughness and mental focus. He has helped the Los Angeles Lakers win many games.
Mental toughness may be the only most important difference that may set a great player apart from a good player. Kobe Bryant, also known as “Black Mamba”, a name he gave himself as this snake can strike with 99% accuracy at maximum speed in rapid succession. As the shooting guard for the LA Lakers, this means that most of the times he is the main scoring person for the team and should be able to score in the last moments of the game when the defense is tighter. He has to do many role plays on the court, pass the ball quickly, be agile and yet be determined and not shaky when the moment calls for a straight throw of ball into the basket from a long distance amidst chaotic and even the most depressing situation. This is clearly a excellent display of the mental game of basketball.
When the game is about to be finished and the last few minutes are left and a single shot can make you a winner or send your team back home, just being physically trained is not enough. If one cannot handle the mental pressure of being amidst thousands of shouting people for and against you, provocative defense lined up around you this is where being mentally tough will make or break you. Players like Kobe Bryant either have inherent innate mental toughness or build it up through sports psychology for basketball, exposure to situations and meeting people with like minds and attitude, like their coaches and other great players. With a strong basketball psychology foundation one is able to block out all the distractions and mayhem around them, have inner confidence and have an unsurpassed quality of fearlessness. With mental toughness and these qualities, in the most climax moments you will be able to keep your mind calm, remain focused and score.
Keeping a focused mind and not letting fear, suspicion, insecurity, anger, indecisiveness grapple at the crucial moments can be quite tough especially in a charged atmosphere at its climax. When the ball is in your hand and the fate of the team is hanging on that one basket that you need to score, with strong opponents and your team lagging behind and teammates morale touching low, your mental preparation for situations like this will carry you and the team.
Those are the times, when Kobe Bryant with his mental toughness give hope, encourages teammates and with focused mind play the game without letting his mind get bogged down with suspicious and negative thoughts that generally and naturally creep in and clog the mind. This mental toughness is what makes such players perform the feats that make people stare with awe, because it is not the act itself but the time when the act was performed. The Dr. Rev Martin Luther King Jr. said “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”.
What does Kobe Bryant say, “Everything negative pressure, challenges, is all an opportunity for me to rise.”. Kobe Bryant has inspired all the athletes all over the world. To summarizes in a nutshell, his attitude about how he uses and converts adversities to his benefit and finds a way to turn it to his advantage is nothing but mental toughness. It is the ability to have a complete control over your emotions.
Kobe Bryant in one of the interviews said something on similar lines- “mental toughness is about not getting too high or too low, but staying at an even keel”. Is about not getting emotionally attached to a situation, like getting excited one time or another time, letting frustrations disappoint you if you missed the shot, had a turnover, or missed a rebound. The ability to not let it linger on and lose the perspective because one can either react to it or focus and get right back to be in the game.
