“I used a lot of visualization in terms of who I would be guarding and who would be guarding me. When I was walking down the street for, say, lunch, I’d imagine those individuals in front of me. I’d imagine going around them.” – Isaiah Thomas

While working on the fundamentals, technics and the physical attributes that are needed in the development of any athlete, the key to unleashing the champion within is moulding basketball mental toughness. Achieving this state of a tough mental game, basketball Shangri la if you like, is often the hardest and last piece needed to boost individual performance towards its full potential.

The pursuit of basketball mental toughness can appear to be allusive for many athletes. Even when basketball mental toughness is achieved it can remain in a fleeting or fragile state. Lapses can result in a manifestation of the negatives caused by this weakened state of an athlete’s basketball psychology.

Self-intimidation can be one of those negatives and has been frequently shown to be a huge hurdle for many athletes. Intimidation can take place when the opposition attempts to gain a mental advantage over others. However, most intimidation comes from athletes who self-intimidate themselves without any aid from others (i.e. from their own thought process).

The reason self-intimidation is tougher to overcome than intimidation is because it is relatively easy to ignore what an opponent might say, but athletes struggle to ignore their own doubts or feelings. Many athletes are not even aware that they intimidate themselves due to the subtle form the self-intimidation can take.

Self-intimidation can be identified by its many forms of incarnation; some can be in the guise of:

1. Self-doubting one’s own ability to perform against a certain opposition.
2. Believing the other team is better or making by comparisons.
3. Becoming overwhelmed with emotion (e.g. excitement, stress or owe) from the competitive environment.
4. Focusing on the wrong things when practicing and competing.
5. Giving too much energy to your competition during pregame (i.e. silently comparing skills, size, speed, height, muscle mass, or equipment of the opposition). Some even go as far as to compare themselves with their own team mates.
6. Feeling pressure to perform to their best abilities or win.
7. Worrying about performing against other athletes who are just as skilled.
8. Worrying about competing against a better placed team or a well-known athlete.
9. Becoming caught up in the importance of a game.

By focusing on these mental factors athletes will play tighter and be afraid of losing the match. Instead of approaching the game as something fun, their constant worrying results in making them tense, leading to deflating confidence.

Sports psychology for basketball tackles overcoming self-intimidation by instilling confidence and composure in an athlete. Athletes that possess this tandem of mental skills usually do not intimidate themselves. Confidence and composure give an athlete the fire power to control their emotions and crave the challenge of competition.

The first task in overcoming self-intimidation is to be honest in recognizing the instances when you are putting yourself out of the competition and only then move forward to improving your confidence and self-composure.

A sports psychologist for basketball or mental game coach can help you achieve this by developing mental strategies to remain composed when the competition intimidates you.

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