“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” – John Wooden

Basketball mental toughness often makes the difference between two opposing teams or individual players. The type of mindset that is carried onto the court will directly impact a team’s or an athlete’s ability to perform as well as the state of their mental game.

Basketball tends to reward specific types of mindsets. There are several types of mindsets in basketball psychology; however they can basically be divided up into being either “positive” or “negative”.

When the training or practice mindset of an athlete is set for perfection they will usually be highly motivated, work hard to succeed and generally strive to be the best they can. During practice they can take some time to consider their technique, address mistakes or analyse their performance.

While this may be somewhat beneficial in a practice environment perfectionist athlete’s often struggle with the fear of failure, fragile states of confidence, a lack of trust, worrying about their technique, overanalysing their performance, play tentatively to avoid mistakes and become frustrated during games.

Although these are the athletes who want to succeed the most and train the hardest they rarely meet their potential in competition.

In effect this training or practice mindset sabotages their ability to perform freely and fearlessly in games.

Athletes that possess a trust or performance mindset tend to be the ones that excel.

This is because a trusting or performance mindset is built on a foundation of confidence, repetition and preparation. This allows the athlete to react quickly to the environment, play freely and to focus on each play.

They have an acute awareness of their own mental game so they have learned how to keep things simple in competition by letting go of micromanaging their body’s every movement, overanalysing or overthinking and instead just allow their trained physical skills to take over and just happen.

Athletes can learn to free up their game by beginning to understand and accept that mistakes will happen, this can allow an athlete to remain confident and focused even after they have made a mistake.

Another distraction that can be avoided is focusing too much on the end result. This will only create pressure and take focus away from the present moment where it is most needed.

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