“I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it is an illusion to me . . . Failure always made me try harder next time.” – Michael Jordan

Possessing the attribute of basketball mental toughness is often what separates the good athletes from the great athletes. Unlocking each athlete’s own unique basketball mind can assist an athlete in achieving an embryonic state of self-consciousness; thereby, achieving the first, and often the most difficult, steps in the on-going journey towards reaching the rewarding state of being as fully aware as possible.

In sports psychology for basketball, one of the goals in self-awareness is to make the athlete aware which of their own perspectives and patterns are holding them back from achieving consistent fearless peak performance.

In some cases, certain perspectives and patterns can be detrimental to the athlete’s physical and mental game. Basketball is a sport that benefits the athletes that have learned how to efficiently manage their perspectives and patterns accordingly in order to achieve a fearless performance. By, effectively, weeding out their own non-beneficial perspectives and patterns and then replacing them with beneficial ones, athletes learn how to divert their focus only to where it can be potentially productive for them on the court.

Expectation can be defined as being “[…] judgments and demands that you place on your performance usually pertaining to outcomes or personal statistic […]“ Expectations cause one to judge how they are doing compared to how they think they should be doing.

Having expectations can often lead to fear (e.g. the fear of failure) and can end up holding back many athletes. By having strict expectations athletes sometimes turn to focusing their mind, and therefore their efforts, on the outcome. This can often translate into the athlete focusing on the final result and then becoming tense or freezing up during competition. Some athletes go as far as harshly judging themselves during this process when practicing or competing. These outcomes are undesirable to the athlete as they are counterproductive.

Some athletes are not aware that expectations are causing them “problems”. One cause could be that they are misreading their actions and perceiving them to be stemming out of their confidence. Upon closer examination an athlete may in fact be setting unrealistic expectations of themselves (.i.e. “I aim high because I know I will definitely achieve my goals!”).

Confidence is nothing more than having belief in the ability to execute at the best of one’s own ability in any given situation and knowing that mistakes are nothing more than an opportunity to learn. High expectations can be identified when the pursuit of the demand comes along with an added sense of pressure. High expectations can set up an athlete for failure before the competition has even started.

Athletes that have become aware that they focus on strict expectations, perfectionist expectations or unrealistic expectations soon understand that they are causing harm to their basketball confidence. So they begin to focus on matters that might increase their chances of excelling instead. One such thing could be the setting up of personal process goals that will hopefully positively impact the athlete’s overall performance.

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