Any basketball player who desires success on the court must fully understand the importance basketball confidence plays in their performance and improvement. The player who lacks a strong mental game is easy to beat, no matter if they are physically superior. Self doubt can weaken a great player to an average one in less time than a timeout. It is important for any player to actively monitor their mindset and build a basketball mental toughness to ensure their thoughts are positive and constructive towards better play.

Sports psychology of basketball is crucial for a coach and players to incorporate in their training regimen. Learning to keep your expectations pursuant to your goals, while not focusing on shortcomings is critical to your overall game improvement.

Michael Jordan said it best, “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.

It is important to listen to those who understand the mental game of basketball, and offer constructive ideas to your play. However, self-doubt comes from within. It is the inner voice and thoughts with exclamation points following them. Even if a coach, parent, fan, sportswriter, or teammate is especially negative, it is up to you to analyze the thoughts you choose to harbor and replay in your memory.

Surround yourself with encouraging people who give you relevant feedback, but also work to strengthen your mindset. It is best that your biggest influences understand sports psychology of basketball, and utilize encouragement to strengthen our mental toughness. Then place your focus on the plan of attack for improvment, and never the critique given by those who truly don’t care about you.

“I know that I’m never as good or bad as any single performance. I’ve never believed my critics or my worshippers, and I’ve always been able to leave the game at the arena.” Charles Barkley

Find a method such as a journal or calendar to keep track of your progress in all areas, not just areas that need improvement. Even if your free throw is not as solid as you desire, track your progress. Also track your conditioning, weight training, three points shots, and assist statistics. Sports psychology of basketball deems it necessary to acknowledge your strengths as well as areas of weakness. Visuals are a great reminder of how hard you work, and all progress matters no matter how minor they may seem. This allows the strength of your mental game for basketball to reframe your focus.

Another idea for building a basketball mental toughness is to form realistic goals that gradually increase to the performance you desire. If your goal is to make 100% of your free throws, and you currently shoot 20%, then there must be progressive goals along the journey. Keep your goals positive such as “Make 90% of my free throws” instead of “Don’t miss any free throws.”

Also, it is best to keep your goals individual. The goal of “Lead the team in assists” sounds positive, but the ability to achieve it relies on other people. If no one had an assist, and you made one, would that truly be enough to sustain your fulfillment of the goal? Instead, base your success entirely on your performance. “Finish the season with 30 assists” would be a better goal for increasing your mental toughness and positive mindset.

Continually strive to analyze your inner voice and thoughts. Are they encouraging or at least constructive? Do they sound positive or condemning? “Don’t lose the game”, “My opponent is too good”, “I’m too slow”, are all examples of a negative tone that severely weakens your ability for a peak performance. Sports psychology experts recommend constant awareness of what tone your inner language is to yourself. If it is not positive, then deliberately work to alter it.

Finally, make sure that you prepare the best of our ability. Do not take shortcuts or accept less than your best in your conditioning and practice workouts. The inner knowledge that you haven’t put forth your best effort undermines your basketball mental toughness, and amplifies the debilitating self doubt.